The Day that Georgia howled
by Joseph Ida
Summary: Mapleshade is a cat with everything she had ever wanted. However when mistrust begins forming in the clan over the issue of the black cats. A civil war would engulf the clan. Would Mapleshade be able to hold herself together. Rated M for violence and stuff that younger audiences wouldn't understand. Warriors belongs to their owners yet the events that this story is based on is real
1. The birth of two cats

"For once in our lives, we thought we could live peacefully. When things change, sometimes we aren't adapted or ready for it. When they said they wanted to take our labor force away from our plantations, we rebelled to try to hold on to what we have, however we were in for a rude awakening." Mapleshade, 1861, Atlanta, Georgia.

**Allegiances:**

**Thunderclan:**

Ulysses (Board shouldered tabby tom)

Sherman, William (Lean brown tom)

McClellan, George (Bushy white tom)

Winfield (Fat gray tom)

Ambrose (Dark brown tabby with dope ass Sideburns)

Pope, John (Black tom)

Meade, George (Scrawny Gray tom with scruffy fur)

Hooker, Joseph (Seal point cream tom)

Joshua (Light brown tom)

Rosecrans, William (White and brown tom)

Abraham (Black and white tom (President of Thunderclan))

**Thunderclan Confederacy:**

Robert (Gray and white tom)

Thomas (Dark brown tom also known as "Stonewall")

Braxton (Black and brown tom)

Pickett, George (White and gray tom)

Johnston, Joseph (Black tom)

Jubal (Calico tom)

Hood, John (Snow white tom)

Pemberton, John (Light gray tom)

Jefferson (Gray tom (President of the Thunderclan Confederacy)

Alexander (Short furred brown tom (Vice president of the Thunderclan Confederacy)

Mapleshade (Calico She-cat)

**Kits of Mapleshade:**

Petal (Fluffy brown She-cat)

Patch (Pale patched ginger and white tom with tiny bits of black fur)

Larch (Dark brown Tom)

**Civilians: (Those who don't take any sides to the war.)**

Brown, John (Brown and gray tom)

Frederick (Completely black tom)

Templeton, George (Cream colored tom)

Harriet (Black She-cat)

Wilmer (Light brown tom)

Martha (White she-cat)

**Without Further ado, let's begin**

We often think that legends come from the most well-know or the best speakers. In fact they say those who do so would often lead the world in how powerful they become even if they are weak.

* * *

**February 12****th****, 1809 Shack location in Kentucky.**

A tom with his medical supplies looked over a she-cat as she was struggling to get her kit out. The tom knew that his work was just about done.

"All right Nancy, just one last push and we would be done." The tom mewed to Nancy as it was a message that it was now or never to have her kit. Gritting with all her might, Nancy forced the kit out who was complete with everything including a top hat. The new kit spat the pacifier out as he got out a piece of paper as he coughed to clear his voice and began to speak.

"9 months and four days ago, my father brought forth upon my mother himself and gave to her a child conceived in a shack in Kentucky and dedicated to the proposition that I will drink num-nums from a bottle and do little poo poos in my Pantses. For the next two to three years now, what does, if babies do again? Oh yeah." The kit spoke before his eyes teared up and he began crying. His farther looked at him.

"I am not touching that." His father looked at the crying kit. Nancy looked at him.

"What should we name him?" Nancy asked. His father looked at him as he was thinking of a name for such an intelligent kit.

"Let's name him Abraham." His father replied. They knew that Abraham would be the head of the household but what they didn't know was that he was destined for greatness and making moves that no other cat would do.

The years would go by as Thunderclan became more and more developed. Abraham worked a lot of jobs to support his family as he soon moved from Kentucky to Indiana and finally to Illinois. He turned being a lawyer for the new state and would help create some of the best cases. But he also began dabbling into the world of Thunderclan's Politics and not even 100 years after Thunderclan's creation, they were beginning to question everything and one of the biggest marks of it was Slavery. Many black cats were taken from their homelands and sold away as property. However the tears were slowly growing as the country had 11 free states and 11 slave states. Now one more state wanted to join.

* * *

**March 3****rd****, 1820**

"Hello cat's nice to meet you." A calico she-cat came in as she was carrying a case and some papers. "I am here to make Missouri the 23rd state of Thunderclan." The she-cat made the proposal. The two groups, the Northerners and the Southerners were looking to add more states to their country.

"Hello she-cat from Missouri, welcome to the nation. We'll be happy to accept Missouri as a free state." The Northern Thunderclan cat mewed as he wanted to make the cat feel comfortable. The Southern Thunderclan cats looked as mistrust was beginning to form in their eyes.

"Oh no you don't. You're trying to get one over on us. Missouri will be a southern slave state." The Southern Thunderclan cats replied as they wanted. The Northern cats knew they wanted to balance things out so that things wouldn't heat up. The senior tom spoke.

"All right, settle down; let's let the miss take her pick on this now it's one or the other." The tom spoke. The she-cat began thinking hard about her decision soon she remembered on why she wanted to do this for.

"Missouri will be a slave state." The she-cat replied. She soon explained. "Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin would help the state get money so it can build settlements." The Southern cats were happy about it but the Northern cats wanted to keep things in check. They soon recognized the unorganized territory they had in the northeast that they wanted to make a state so they decided on that.

"Well if you want to make Missouri a slave state, then allow me to introduce the freshest free state on the map." The northern tom mewed as he soon got out a red marker as he drew an arrow at the free territory, making it the freshest state on the map. "Maine." He mewed giving the state a name. The southern cats were livid as there were two states instead of one. They just wanted more slave states.

"Hey you can't do that!" A Southern She-cat hissed as they thought it was illegal to make 2 states at once but they needed to balance the Slave and Free states. The senior northern tom soon lost his cool and decided to make a move that will set the course for an upset balance of Thunderclan. He soon grabbed a marker as he soon sharply spoke to the Southern She-cat.

"Then you can't have any more slaves above the 36th degree and 30th degree line!" The northern tom hissed as he drew a line on where the southern cats couldn't have any more slaves. The Southern cats were getting angry by this proposition.

"What?!" The southern she-cat hissed. The northern tom turned as he soon spoke.

"The issue of Slavery is solved and it will never come up again." The northern tom spoke as he wanted to address that they have solved the issue. The northern cats cheered while the southern cats were bitterly spiteful and oppressed.

However that wasn't all, as the days began whirling around and passing by, compromises were made as the issue was kicked down the road. It was also here, that one cat would be the ferocious one that will kick things off and this was the day she entered the world.

* * *

**May 7****th****, 1821 Atlanta, Georgia**

A she-cat struggled as she was also bringing a kit into the world, some of their black cat slaves were helping out as she forced the kit out. She was panting as she was finished.

"It's a she-cat." One of the slaves mewed as he soon handed the calico kit over. The she-cat looked at her.

"Maple, my daughter, Maple." She mewed as she was holding her. She soon gave the she-kit a name as she would take care of the kit.

As the years went by, Maple was spoiled throughout as she was often given the most lavish and expensive things while becoming a beautiful southerner cat. Maple was interested in most things growing up but one thing she was the most interested in was taking over her mother's property. After owning hundreds of slaves and maintaining it for the next couple of decades. Maple knew that something was going to happen. Maple was reading the paper as she was taking a sip of her morning coffee. The main headline said: Thunderclan gone to war with Mexico, Volunteers needed. Maple was already 25 years old and she was waiting around. One of the slaves came to Maple.

"I know what I want to do." Maple mewed as she wanted to get herself ready. The slave took her mug and her plate as he looked at her.

"But Maple, your mother is dying of Typhoid Fever, you sure you want to go volunteer for Thunderclan? What if you die, there will be nobody left to inherit the plantation of cotton." The slave mewed wondering if it was right to go and volunteer for her country; Maple looked at the slave.

"I promise I will be back in time to inherit the property, I promise you." Maple soon got up and left, she knew she had a mission to do and she was going to fulfill it. The slaves looked at her as she walked off.

Within months, she got herself signed up and was fighting with a small contingent of Thunderclan cats. She also made a friend but also moreover a lover, a handsome Riverclan volunteer named Appledusk who was serving alongside them.

* * *

**Texas Country, January 28****th****, 1847, Thunderclan-Mexican war.**

Mapleshade was one of the few that got promoted that day was she was looking over the field of her fellow fighters. A gray tom named Winfield looked over his fighters as he was preparing to speak.

"Okay, we're just about ready to finish the Chihuahuas off, I want everyone ready and able to fight, fix your bayonets as we are getting ready to charge through." Winfield announced. Soon he looked over the cannons as they fired away. "Cease your fire, the infantry will come along next." Winfield told the cannons to silence themselves. The cannons soon fired their last shots as Mapleshade went to Appledusk.

"You ready to do this?" Mapleshade asked the tom as she got her musket ready. She soon mounted Appledusk's horse as she would be able to help him.

"Yes I am. We should be able to win this war soon." Appledusk responded. Winfield mounted his horse. Winfield got out his saber as he soon turned to them.

"Charge! Winfield shouted, the horses as well as the infantry, charged out as the horses gained speed. They were going to smash their lines.

The Chihuahuas peeked their heads out as they saw the cats charge at them. They soon got out their muskets as they began getting ready to fire.

"Here they come! Get ready!" Their commander shouted as they soon positioned themselves up and ready to fire. Mapleshade and Appledusk were riding along together as the horses were getting farther up than the infantry. Their commander was getting antsy as he wanted to get this fight done. "Fire!" The commander shouted, the muskets went off as some of the horses and infantry went down but since it took 20 seconds to reload a musket, they heavily relied on their bayonets. Mapleshade raised her musket and fired, striking a Chihuahua down as Appledusk drew his saber. He soon raced alongside the other horses as they began smashing into their lines.

Appledusk soon thrusted his saber into one of the Chihuahuas as Mapleshade stabbed another one with the rifle bayonet. The small dogs were thrown into disarray as they were getting scattered. Some with revolvers fired trying to fend off the attackers but with the Thunderclan cats coming in very close to them, they knew there wasn't going to be that much of a fight left. The Chihuahuas began doing one of three things, retreating, fighting back or surrendering. Winfield soon looked over the numbers.

"So what's the casualties?" Winfield asked wondering what their losses were.

"So far for Thunderclan, 13 dead and 188 wounded. As for the Chihuahuas, 98 dead, 546 wounded and 1,048 taken as prisoners, we definitely won that engagement." Appledusk responded. It was a victory that they needed for this war. Appledusk knew he had to keep this up if they were going to win.

"That's a score for us, at this rate those Chihuahuas wouldn't have any bodies left to fight us and they will lose Texas." Winfield told Appledusk Appledusk dismounted his horse as he went to Mapleshade who had taken a bayonet wound during the attack. He soon entered the tent as one of them was taking care of her.

"How's Mapleshade doing? Appledusk asked the doctor who was tending to her wounds.

"She's holding up surprisingly well, I thought that wound would be the end of her but she's got the guts and that is what we need." The Medic told him. Appledusk walked closer as he looked at her.

"You fought well and you done your country good, when we're done, I promise you that I will return home with you." Appledusk responded. Mapleshade laid in her medical bed as Appledusk sat next to her.

In the months that followed, the cats were getting their victories however the loud moth state of Texas was going to create even more problems for them as they were going to take a bloody turn for the worse.

**[A/N]: A new story but this time it will be centered around Mapleshade and her struggle to keep what she wanted. This first chapter was more of the exposition as there is a lot of events that would lead up to the big conflict but I wanted to get the first two out of the way. Who says they want to see more? Review and give your opinions on this so I can continue teaching you about what will lead up to this war. Free and Slave states of Thunderclan will not get along in the further chapters to come so be prepared for it.**

**Also if anyone is confused with the 36****th**** degree and 30****th**** degree allow me to explain, it's where Missouri and Arkansas begins on the map and the cats say you can't have any more slaves above that line. Let's hope it lasts.**


	2. Escalating Tension

The situation they sensed was only getting worse. Northern Thunderclan cats thought the South wanted to expand on slavery while Southern Thunderclan cats thought the north wanted to take their slaves away. Mistrust was beginning to form between the cats but the only trust that was being expanded upon was two lovers that fought together in the Thunderclan-Mexican war.

* * *

Mapleshade POV

**February 14****th****, 1848, Atlanta, Georgia**

"Finally we're home." A plump looking Mapleshade mewed as she was finally back on her plantation. One of the slaves looked at her as he greeted her and Appledusk as they all walked back in. Her mother originally thought to be dying managed to recover but the Typhoid left a mark on her. She was frail and weak as she struggled down the stairs with the help of a couple of slaves. "Mother! I'm back!" Mapleshade soon approached her weak mother as she hugged her. "This is my lover Appledusk who I met in the war." Appledusk went to the She-cat as he shook her hand.

"It's an honor to meet you miss. We won the war and we got so much land out west." Appledusk mewed as he gave the results shaking the She-cat's paw. The mother of Mapleshade looked down as she saw her daughter looked like she was getting plump. Appledusk knew this was awkward as he needed to pull her to the side.

"So what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?" The she-cat asked Appledusk as he sat her down. He soon sat down too.

"Well Mapleshade… she's having a kit." Appledusk blurted out. Her mother turned to him as she nodded.

"Congrats, my little girl's gonna be a mother. If I die, I want you to help take care of the cotton plantation." The old she-cat croaked. Appledusk knew he would have some property to himself but he wanted to know about the property that they'll be inheriting.

"How big is the plantation?" Appledusk asked. All that cotton would certainly brought his lover's family into wealth. Soon some of the slaves came around and put some cups down as they poured them some tea.

"About 20,000 acres." The old She-cat mewed as she told Appledusk about it. Appledusk raised his cup as he took a sip of the tea.

"I know this plantation is what brings a lot of business into the world right?" Appledusk asked as he wanted to know about it.

"It does that's for certain but I just want to get you and my lovely little Maple married." The She-cat remarked. Appledusk nodded.

Although they had won the war against Mexico, the land they gained was only creating even more problems. Even though new states were added in pairs, it was decided that Texas was going to be a southern slave state while the new northern Free State was Wisconsin. However as time would pass, this was going to create more problems.

Mapleshade had her kit just three months later and the new kit's name would be Patch. Appledusk became the head of the household as Mapleshade mother's body was still ravaged by the Typhoid fever. Mapleshade was feeding Patch from a bottle as Appledusk ran in.

"Mapleshade! Something exciting just happened! Gold was found on the west coast for some time now!" Appledusk mewed as he felt like he wanted to take care of things as quick as possible.

"Gold that's great, should we try to go out and get some for ourselves?" Mapleshade asked. Appledusk looked at her as he had other intentions.

"I want to make some merchandise for those traveling out west in exchange for the gold that we might get, it will be stationed in Atlanta itself and I think we should be able to go out there and make millions." Appledusk mewed as he told his intentions. Patch yawned from his sleep as he opened his green eyes to look at his father.

"Once we built up enough of our fortunes, we might as well run Atlanta ourselves and make the trains there run on time." Appledusk soon pecked Mapleshade on her cheek as he went out of his way to get a loan to kick start the business.

While a certain someone was getting their lives started, some were coming more to a head as the government continued to get more and more volatile. Soon, another state wanted to join.

* * *

Unknown POV

**September 9****th****, 1850**

A big white tom with blue eyes walked in as he was holding a briefcase as it contained all the papers since he wanted Thunderclan to create a new state. He soon pulled out a chair as Northern cats and Southern cats watched. The tom spoke.

"Hello cat's nice to meet you." The tom spoke. He soon out the papers as he spoke. "I am here to make California the 31st state of Thunderclan." The Southern cats knew they needed to sway the vote in their favor.

"Hello tom-cat, welcome to the nation. We'll be happy to accept you as a southern slave state." The southern cats mewed as the northern cats were beginning to get angry seeing how they were trying to expand slavery.

"Oh no you don't. You're trying to get one over on us. California will be a free state." The Northern toms hissed as they wanted another free state. The Southern cats wanted to keep the volatile situation in check.

"All right, settle down; let's let the tom take his pick on this now it's one or the other." A southern She-cat spoke. The tom thought about it and all the influx of the population heading into California for the gold rush and the money the state had been making alone. He soon spoke.

"California will be a free state." The Tom responded. The Southern cats were shocked as they needed to balance the free and slave situation out. A Southern she-cat soon pointed to the territory that was in the middle splitting California from the rest of the states.

"Now allow me to introduce the territories of New Mexico and Utah able to freely vote for slavery themselves." She mewed putting a circle around the unorganized territories. The Northern cats were livid by this.

"Hey you can't do that!" A Northern tom hissed as he knew she wanted to expand slavery secretly with making the population decided on it themselves. She soon wanted to get their slaves back that were running away to the north for their own freedom.

"Then we can enter northern territory anytime we want to recapture escaped slaves!" The Southern She-cat hissed as she wanted to propose they had free reign in the north to recapture what was rightfully theirs. The Northern cats were getting angry by this proposition.

"What?!" The Northern tom cat hissed. The Southern She-cat turned as she spoke.

"The issue of Slavery is solved and it will never come again." The Southern she-cat spoke as she wanted to address that they had solved the issue. The southern cats cheered while the northern cats were feeling bitterly spiteful and oppressed.

A few years later, the issue of slavery will come up again.

* * *

Mapleshade's POV

Mapleshade was plump again as she was expecting another kit. Patch already now had a little brother named Lark as Appledusk came in with the paper.

"Evening my lovely flower." Appledusk mewed to Mapleshade.

"Evening to you." Mapleshade mewed to Appledusk. Appledusk kissed Mapleshade on her cheek as he soon puts down the paper.

"Yeah things were getting chaotic as we got the news that California is now the newest state added to Thunderclan. Now they say the south had free reign to enter the north to recapture escaped slaves. I don't fear that the slaves will run away from us since your mother does a good job on taking care of them." Appledusk mewed about what has happened. Mapleshade soon took the paper as she began to read it.

"The whole fugitive slave act, was it really necessary?" Mapleshade asked. She was holding Lark in her arms as Patch was elsewhere being told stories by his grandmother.

"I believe so if we want to keep our slave numbers up. I do worry of the fact that I don't want any of our slaves escaping and thinking they are free. It's neither of our policies but your mothers." Appledusk expressed himself as he sat down on the couch. "You have everything that you want but now I believe they are coming to take it all away but the question isn't if but when." Mapleshade began to think about it as she continued to hold Lark in her paws.

"Don't know but I want to ask my mother about this when the time comes. I don't want my personal caretakers to be taken away on us when we are so dependent on them especially this huge black cat with yellow eyes, he's been helping my mother ever since she recovered from Typhoid Fever but she is slowly losing her strength again." Mapleshade mewed as she was beginning to worry about her mother again.

"I hope it's not Typhoid again." Appledusk mewed as he knew that it Typhoid was one of the many sicknesses that could kill a cat as young as Patch or as old as her mother. Mapleshade knew that she had to be on the watch.

"We have to keep our eyes open if we are going to try to survive. Things are falling downhill faster than we can grip into it." Mapleshade was cautious about this was going to be the most chaotic period of her life.

The years passed as the country continued to develop. Mapleshade had another kit named Petal and she wanted to make sure that she didn't have any more kits seeing how hers were healthy. Patch was growing up fast as well as educated as he was following in his father's paw steps. Lark wasn't as smart but wanted to follow his brother and Petal was spoiled as her mother relying on the slaves. Patch knew he had to keep his book collection from Mapleshade's eyes as he was slowly consolidating ideas and political influence from the north. His favorite book was from the new best seller Harriet Beecher Stowe called Uncle Tom's Cabin which exposed the terrible cruelty of slavery to the world.

* * *

Victoria, Queen of Windclan's POV

Victoria was walking around as she was also holding a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin as she was finding out all the terrible things Thunderclan's Slavery had been taking part in.

"Oh how awful, how morally corrupt a nation must be to let such terrible things happen to its cats." Victoria mewed as she was feeling sympathy for their slaves. One of her advisors wearing a monocle and having an awkward smile walked up to.

"Your majesty, what should we do about all the starving Windclan kits working in the coal mines?" Swiftflight asked the queen if she had any idea what she could do about it. She turned as she tossed the book away.

"NOTHING!" Victoria hissed. It was clear she was willing to sympathize with another clan's cats rather than her own.

* * *

Abraham POV

Abraham was an aging cat as he was well liked among Abolitionist Northern Thunderclan cats and escaped slaves that got their freedom and were working as citizens. Abraham came to a podium in Peoria and after clearing his voice. Abraham spoke:

"The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the propriety of its restoration, constitute the subject of what I am about to say. As I desire to present my own connected view of this subject, my remarks will not be, specifically, an answer to Judge Douglas; yet, as I proceed, the main points he has presented will arise, and will receive such respectful attention as I may be able to give them. I wish further to say that I do not propose to question the patriotism, or to assail the motives of any man, or class of men; but rather to strictly confine myself to the naked merits of the question. I also wish to be no less than National in all the positions I may take; and whenever I take ground which others have thought, or may think, narrow, sectional and dangerous to the Union, I hope to give a reason, which will appear sufficient, at least to some, why I think differently. And, as this subject is no other, than part and parcel of the larger general question of domestic-slavery, I wish to MAKE and to KEEP the distinction between the EXISTING institution, and the EXTENSION of it, so broad, and so clear, that no honest man can misunderstand me, and no dishonest one, successfully misrepresent me. In order to a clear understanding of what the Missouri Compromise is, a short history of the preceding kindred subjects will perhaps be proper. When we established our independence, we did not own, or claim, the country to which this compromise applies. Indeed, strictly speaking, the confederacy then owned no country at all; the States respectively owned the country within their limits; and some of them owned territory beyond their strict State limits. Virginia thus owned the North-Western territory-the country out of which the principal part of Ohio, all Indiana, all Illinois, all Michigan and all Wisconsin, have since been formed. She also owned what has since been formed into the State of Kentucky. North Carolina thus owned what is now the State of Tennessee; and South Carolina and Georgia, in separate parts, owned what are now Mississippi and Alabama. Connecticut, I think, owned the little remaining part of Ohio being the same where they now send Giddings to Congress, and beat all creation at making cheese. These territories, together with the States themselves, constituted all the country over which the confederacy then claimed any sort of jurisdiction. We were then living under the Articles of Confederation, which were superceded by the Constitution several years afterwards. The question of ceding these territories to the general government was set on foot. Mr. Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, and otherwise a chief actor in the revolution; then a delegate in Congress; afterwards twice President; who was, is, and perhaps will continue to be, the most distinguished politician of our history; a Virginian by birth and continued residence, and withal, a slave-holder; conceived the idea of taking that occasion, to prevent slavery ever going into the north-western territory. He prevailed on the Virginia Legislature to adopt his views, and to cede the territory, making the prohibition of slavery therein, a condition of the deed. Congress accepted the cession, with the condition; and in the first Ordinance for the government of the territory, provided that slavery should never be permitted therein. This is the famed ordinance of '87 so often spoken of. Thenceforward, for sixty-one years, and until in 1848, the last scrap of this territory came into the Union as the State of Wisconsin, all parties acted in quiet obedience to this ordinance. It is now what Jefferson foresaw and intended the happy home of teeming millions of free, white, prosperous people, and no slave amongst them. Thus, with the author of the Declaration of Independence, the policy of prohibiting slavery in new territory originated. Thus, away back of the constitution, in the pure fresh, free breath of the revolution, the State of Virginia, and the National congress put that policy in practice. Thus through sixty odd of the best years of the republic did that policy steadily work to its great and beneficent end. And thus, in those five states, and five millions of free, enterprising people, we have before us the rich fruits of this policy. But now new light breaks upon us. Now congress declares this ought never to have been; and the like of it, must never be again. The sacred right of self-government is grossly violated by it! We even find some men, who drew their first breath, and every other breath of their lives, under this very restriction, now live in dread of absolute suffocation, if they should be restricted in the "sacred right" of taking slaves to Nebraska. That perfect liberty they sigh for the liberty of making slaves of other people Jefferson never thought of; their own father never thought of; they never thought of themselves, a year ago. How fortunate for them, they did not sooner become sensible of their great misery! Oh, how difficult it is to treat with respect, such assaults upon all we have ever really held sacred. But to return to history, in 1803 we purchased what was then called Louisiana, of France. It included the now states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa; also the territory of Minnesota, and the present bone of contention, Kansas and Nebraska. Slavery already existed among the French at New Orleans; and, to some extent, at St. Louis. In 1812 Louisiana came into the Union as a slave state, without controversy. In 1818 or '19, Missouri showed signs of a wish to come in with slavery. This was resisted by northern members of Congress; and thus began the first great slavery agitation in the nation. This controversy lasted several months, and became very angry and exciting; the House of Representatives voting steadily for the prohibition of slavery in Missouri, and the Senate voting as steadily against it. Threats of breaking up the Union were freely made; and the ablest public men of the day became seriously alarmed. At length a compromise was made, in which, like all compromises, both sides yielded something. It was a law passed on the 6th day of March, 1820, providing that Missouri might come into the Union _with_ slavery, but that in all the remaining part of the territory purchased of France, which lies north of 36 degrees and 30 minutes north latitude, slavery should never be permitted. This provision of law _is the Missouri Compromise_. In excluding slavery north of the line, the same language is employed as in the Ordinance of '87. It directly applied to Iowa, Minnesota, and to the present bone of contention, Kansas and Nebraska. Whether there should or should not, be slavery south of that line, nothing was said in the law; but Arkansas constituted the principal remaining part, south of the line; and it has since been admitted as a slave state without serious controversy. More recently, Iowa, north of the line, came in as a free state without controversy. Still later, Minnesota, north of the line, had a territorial organization without controversy. Texas principally south of the line, and West of Arkansas; though originally within the purchase from France, had, in 1819, been traded off to Spain, in our treaty for the acquisition of Florida. It had thus become a part of Mexico. Mexico revolutionized and became independent of Spain. American citizens began settling rapidly, with their slaves in the southern part of Texas. Soon they revolutionized against Mexico, and established an independent government of their own, adopting a constitution, with slavery, strongly resembling the constitutions of our slave states. By still another rapid move, Texas, claiming a boundary much further West, than when we parted with her in 1819, was brought back to the United States, and admitted into the Union as a slave state. There then was little or no settlement in the northern part of Texas, a considerable portion of which lay north of the Missouri line; and in the resolutions admitting her into the Union, the Missouri restriction was expressly extended westward across her territory. This was in 1845, only nine years ago. Thus originated the Missouri Compromise; and thus has it been respected down to 1845. And even four years later, in 1849, our distinguished Senator, in a public address, held the following language in relation to it: "The Missouri Compromise had been in practical operation for about a quarter of a century, and had received the sanction and approbation of men of all parties in every section of the Union. It had allayed all sectional jealousies and irritations growing out of this vexed question, and harmonized and tranquilized the whole country. It had given to Henry Clay, as its prominent champion, the proud sobriquet of the '_Great Pacificator'_ and by that title and for that service, his political friends had repeatedly appealed to the people to rally under his standard, as a presidential candidate, as the man who had exhibited the patriotism and the power to suppress, an unholy and treasonable agitation, and preserve the Union. He was not aware that any man or any party from any section of the Union had ever urged as an objection to Mr. Clay, that he was the great champion of the Missouri Compromise. On the contrary, the effort was made by the opponents of Mr. Clay, to prove that he was not entitled to the exclusive merit of that great patriotic measure, and that the honor was equally due to others as well as to him, for securing its adoption that it had its origin in the hearts of all patriotic men, who desired to preserve and perpetuate the blessings of our glorious Union an origin akin that of the constitution of the United States, conceived in the same spirit of fraternal affection, and calculated to remove forever, the only danger, which seemed to threaten, at some distant day, to sever the social bond of union. All the evidences of public opinion at that day seemed to indicate that this Compromise had been canonized in the hearts of the American people, as a sacred thing which no ruthless hand would ever be reckless enough to disturb." I do not read this extract to involve Judge Douglas in an inconsistency. If he afterwards thought he had been wrong, it was right for him to change. I bring this forward merely to show the high estimate placed on the Missouri Compromise by all parties up to so late as the year 1849. But, going back a little, in point of time, our war with Mexico broke out in 1846. When Congress was about adjourning that session, President Polk asked them to place two millions of dollars under his control, to be used by him in the recess, if found practicable and expedient, in negotiating a treaty of peace with Mexico, and acquiring some part of her territory. A bill was duly got up, for the purpose, and was progressing swimmingly, in the House of Representatives, when a member by the name of David Wilmot, a democrat from Pennsylvania, moved as an amendment "Provided that in any territory thus acquired, there shall never be slavery." This is the origin of the far-famed 'Wilmot Proviso.' It created a great flutter; but it stuck like wax, was voted into the bill, and the bill passed with it through the House. The Senate, however, adjourned without final action on it and so both appropriation and proviso were lost, for the time. The war continued, and at the next session, the president renewed his request for the appropriation, enlarging the amount, I think, to three million. Again came the proviso; and defeated the measure. Congress adjourned again, and the war went on. In Dec., 1847, the new congress assembled. I was in the lower House that term. The "Wilmot Proviso" or the principle of it was constantly coming up in some shape or other, and I think I may venture to say I voted for it at least forty times; during the short term I was there. The Senate, however, held it in check, and it never became law. In the spring of 1848 a treaty of peace was made with Mexico; by which we obtained that portion of her country which now constitutes the territories of New Mexico and Utah, and the now state of California. By this treaty the Wilmot Proviso was defeated, as so far as it was intended to be, a condition of the acquisition of territory. Its friends however, were still determined to find some way to restrain slavery from getting into the new country. This new acquisition lay directly west of our old purchase from Riverclan, and extended west to the Pacific ocean and was so situated that if the Missouri line should be extended straight West, the new country would be divided by such extended line, leaving some North and some South of it. On Judge Douglas' motion a bill, or provision of a bill, passed the Senate to so extend the Missouri line. The Proviso men in the House, including myself, voted it down, because by implication, it gave up the Southern part to slavery, while we were bent on having it _all_ free. In the fall of 1848 the gold mines were discovered in California. This attracted people to it with unprecedented rapidity, so that on, or soon after, the meeting of the new congress in Dec., 1849, she already had a population of nearly a hundred thousand, had called a convention, formed a state constitution, excluding slavery, and was knocking for admission into the Union. The Proviso men, of course were for letting her in, but the Senate, always true to the other side would not consent to her admission. And there California stood, kept _out_ of the Union, because she would not let slavery _into_ her borders. Under all the circumstances perhaps this was not wrong. There were other points of dispute, connected with the general question of slavery, which equally needed adjustment. The South clamored for a more efficient fugitive slave law. The North clamored for the abolition of a peculiar species of slave trade in the District of Columbia, in connection with which, in view from the windows of the capitol, a sort of negro-livery stable, where droves of negroes were collected, temporarily kept, and finally taken to Southern markets, precisely like droves of horses, had been openly maintained for fifty years. Utah and New Mexico needed territorial governments; and whether slavery should or should not be prohibited within them, was another question. The indefinite Western boundary of Texas was to be settled. She was received a slave state; and consequently the farther West the slavery men could push her boundary, the more slave country they secured. And the farther East the slavery opponents could thrust the boundary back, the less slave ground was secured. Thus this was just as clearly a slavery question as any of the others. These points all needed adjustment; and they were all held up, perhaps wisely to make them help to adjust one another. The Union, now, as in 1820, was thought to be in danger; and devotion to the Union rightfully inclined men to yield somewhat, in points where nothing else could have so inclined them. A compromise was finally affected. The south got their new fugitive-slave law; and the North got California, as a Free State. The south got a provision that New Mexico and Utah, when admitted as States, may come in with or without slavery as they may then choose; and the north got the slave-trade abolished in the District of Columbia. The north got the western boundary of Texas, thence further back eastward than the south desired; but, in turn, they gave Texas ten millions of dollars, with which to pay her old debts. This is the Compromise of 1850. Preceding the Presidential election of 1852, each of the great political parties, democrats and Whigs, met in convention, and adopted resolutions endorsing the compromise of '50; as a "finality," a final settlement, so far as these parties could make it so, of all slavery agitation. Previous to this, in 1851, the Illinois Legislature had indorsed it. During this long period of time Nebraska had remained, substantially an uninhabited country, but now emigration to, and settlement within it began to take place. It is about one third as large as the present United States, and its importance so long overlooked, begins to come into view. The restriction of slavery by the Missouri Compromise directly applies to it; in fact, was first made, and has since been maintained, expressly for it. In 1853, a bill to give it a territorial government passed the House of Representatives, and, in the hands of Judge Douglas, failed of passing the Senate only for want of time. This bill contained no repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Indeed, when it was assailed because it did not contain such repeal, Judge Douglas defended it in its existing form. On January 4th, 1854, Judge Douglas introduces a new bill to give Nebraska territorial government. He accompanies this bill with a report, in which last, he expressly recommends that the Missouri Compromise shall neither be affirmed nor repealed. Before long the bill is so modified as to make two territories instead of one; calling the Southern one Kansas. Also, about a month after the introduction of the bill, on the judge's own motion, it is so amended as to declare the Missouri Compromise inoperative and void; and, substantially, that the People who go and settle there may establish slavery, or exclude it, as they may see fit. In this shape the bill passed both branches of congress, and became a law. This is the _repeal_ of the Missouri Compromise. The foregoing history may not be precisely accurate in every particular; but I am sure it is sufficiently so, for all the uses I shall attempt to make of it, and in it, we have before us, the chief material enabling us to correctly judge whether the repeal of the Missouri Compromise is right or wrong. I think, and shall try to show, that it is wrong; wrong in its direct effect, letting slavery into Kansas and Nebraska-and wrong in its prospective principle, allowing it to spread to every other part of the wide world, where men can be found inclined to take it. This _declared_ indifference, but as I must think, covert _real_ zeal for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity, and especially because it forces so many really good men amongst ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty criticizing the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but _self-interest_. Before proceeding, let me say I think I have no prejudice against the Southern people. They are just what we would be in their situation. If slavery did not now exist amongst them, they would not introduce it. If it did now exist amongst us, we should not instantly give it up. This I believe of the masses north and south. Doubtless there are individuals, on both sides, who would not hold slaves under any circumstances; and others who would gladly introduce slavery anew, if it were out of existence. We know that some southern men do free their slaves, go north, and become tip-top abolitionists; while some northern ones go south, and become most cruel slave-masters. When southern people tell us they are no more responsible for the origin of slavery, than we; I acknowledge the fact. When it is said that the institution exists; and that it is very difficult to get rid of it, in any satisfactory way, I can understand and appreciate the saying. I surely will not blame them for not doing what I should not know how to do myself. If all earthly power were given me, I should not know what to do, as to the existing institution. My first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia, to their own native land. But a moment's reflection would convince me, that whatever of high hope, there may be in this, in the long run, its sudden execution is impossible. If they were all landed there in a day, they would all perish in the next ten days; and there are not surplus shipping and surplus money enough in the world to carry them there in many times ten days. What then? Free them all, and keep them among us as underlings? Is it quite certain that this betters their condition? I think I would not hold one in slavery, at any rate; yet the point is not clear enough for me to denounce people upon. What next? Free them, and make them politically and socially, our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this; and if mine would, we well know that those of the great mass of white people will not. Whether this feeling accords with justice and sound judgment, is not the sole question, if indeed, it is any part of it. A universal feeling, whether well or ill-founded, cannot be safely disregarded. We cannot, then, make them equals. It does seem to me that systems of gradual emancipation might be adopted; but for their tardiness in this, I will not undertake to judge our brethren of the south. When they remind us of their constitutional rights, I acknowledge them, not grudgingly, but fully, and fairly; and I would give them any legislation for the reclaiming of their fugitives, which should not, in its stringency, be more likely to carry a free man into slavery, than our ordinary criminal laws are to hang an innocent one. But all this; to my judgment, furnishes no more excuse for permitting slavery to go into our own free territory, than it would for reviving the African slave trade by law. The law which forbids the bringing of slaves _from_ Africa; and that which has so long forbid the taking them _to_ Nebraska, can hardly be distinguished on any moral principle; and the repeal of the former could find quite as plausible excuses as that of the latter. The arguments, by which the repeal of the Missouri Compromise is sought to be justified, are these: First, that the Nebraska country needed a territorial government. Second, that in various ways, the public had repudiated it, and demanded the repeal; and therefore should not now complain of it. And lastly, that the repeal establishes a principle, which is intrinsically right. I will attempt an answer to each of them in its turn. First, then, if that country was in need of a territorial organization, could it not have had it as well without as with the repeal? Iowa and Minnesota, to both of which the Missouri restriction applied, had, without its repeal, each in succession, territorial organizations. And even, the year before, a bill for Nebraska itself, was within an ace of passing, without the repealing clause; and this in the hands of the same men who are now the champions of repeal. Why no necessity then for the repeal? But still later, when this very bill was first brought in, it contained no repeal. But, say they, because the public had demanded, or rather commanded the repeal, the repeal was to accompany the organization, whenever that should occur. Now I deny that the public ever demanded any such thing ever repudiated the Missouri Compromise ever commanded its repeal. I deny it, and call for the proof. It is not contended, I believe, that any such command has ever been given in express terms. It is only said that it was done _in principle_. The support of the Wilmot Proviso is the first fact mentioned, to prove that the Missouri restriction was repudiated in _principle_, and the second is, the refusal to extend the Missouri line over the country acquired from Mexico. These are near enough alike to be treated together. The one was to exclude the chances of slavery from the _whole_ new acquisition by the lump; and the other was to reject a division of it, by which one _half_ was to be given up to those chances. Now whether this was a repudiation of the Missouri line, in _principle_, depends upon whether the Missouri law contained any _principle_ requiring the line to be extended over the country acquired from Mexico. I contend it did not. I insist that it contained no general principle, but that it was, in every sense, specific. That its terms limit it to the country purchased from Riverclan is undented and undeniable. It could have no principle beyond the intention of those who made it. They did not intend to extend the line to country which they did not own. If they intended to extend it, in the event of acquiring additional territory, why did they not say so? It was just as easy to say, that "in all the country west of the Mississippi, which we now own, _or may hereafter acquire_ there shall never be slavery," as to say, what they did say; and they would have said it if they had meant it. An intention to extend the law is not only not mentioned in the law, but is not mentioned in any contemporaneous history. Both the law itself and the history of the times are not a blank as to any principle of extension; and by the known rules for construing statutes and contracts, nor by common sense, can any such _principle_ be inferred. Another fact showing the specific character of the Missouri law-showing that it intended no more than it expressed showing that the line was not intended as a universal dividing line between free and slave territory, present and prospective north of which slavery could never go is the fact that by that very law, Missouri came in as a slave state, _north_ of the line. If that law contained any prospective _principle_, the whole law must be looked to in order to ascertain what the _principle_ was. And by this rule, the south could fairly contend that inasmuch as they got one slave state north of the line at the inception of the law, they have the right to have another given them _north_ of it occasionally now and then in the indefinite westward extension of the line. This demonstrates the absurdity of attempting to deduce a prospective _principle_ from the Missouri Compromise line. When we voted for the Wilmot Proviso, we were voting to keep slavery _out_ of the whole Missouri acquisition; and little did we think we were thereby voting, to let it _into_ Nebraska, laying several hundred miles distant. When we voted against extending the Missouri line, little did we think we were voting to destroy the old line, then of near thirty years standing. To argue that we thus repudiated the Missouri Compromise is no less absurd than it would be to argue that because we have, so far, forborne to acquire Cuba, we have thereby, _in principle_, repudiated our former acquisitions, and determined to throw them out of the Union! No less absurd than it would be to say that because I may have refused to build an addition to my house, I thereby have decided to destroy the existing house! And if I catch you setting fire to my house, you will turn upon me and say I INSTRUCTED you to do it! The most conclusive argument, however, that, while voting for the Wilmot Proviso, and while voting against the EXTENSION of the Missouri line, we never thought of disturbing the original Missouri Compromise, is found in the facts, that there was then, and still is, an unorganized tract of fine country, nearly as large as the state of Missouri, lying immediately west of Arkansas, and south of the Missouri Compromise line; and that we never attempted to prohibit slavery as to it. I wish particular attention to this. It adjoins the original Missouri Compromise line, by its northern boundary; and consequently is part of the country, into which, by implication, slavery was permitted to go, by that compromise. There it has lain open ever since, and there it still lies. And yet no effort has been made at any time to wrest it from the south. In all our struggles to prohibit slavery within our Mexican acquisitions, we never so much as lifted a finger to prohibit it, as to this tract. Is not this entirely conclusive that at all times, we have held the Missouri Compromise as a sacred thing; even when against ourselves, as well as when for us? Senator Douglas sometimes says the Missouri line itself was, _in principle_, only an extension of the line of the ordinance of '87 that is to say, an extension of the Ohio River. I think this is weak enough on its face. I will remark, however that, as a glance at the map will show, the Missouri line is a long way farther South than Page the Ohio; and that if our Senator, in proposing his extension, had stuck to the principle of jogging southward, perhaps it might not have been voted down so readily. But next it is said that the compromises of '50 and the ratification of them by both political parties, in '52, established a _new principle_, which required the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. This again I deny. I deny it, and demand the proof. I have already stated fully what the compromises of '50 are. The particular part of those measures, for which the virtual repeal of the Missouri compromise is sought to be inferred, is the provision in the Utah and New Mexico laws, which permits them when they seek admission into the Union as States, to come in with or without slavery as they shall then see fit. Now I insist this provision was made for Utah and New Mexico, and for no other place whatever. It had no more direct reference to Nebraska than it had to the territories of the moon. But, say they, it had reference to Nebraska, _in principle_. Let us see. The North consented to this provision, not because they considered it right in itself; but because they were compensated paid for it. They, at the same time, got California into the Union as a Free State. This was far the best part of all they had struggled for by the Wilmot Proviso. They also got the area of slavery somewhat narrowed in the settlement of the boundary of Texas. Also, they got the slave trade abolished in the District of Columbia. For all these desirable objects the North could afford to yield something; and they did yield to the South the Utah and New Mexico provision. I do not mean that the whole North, or even a majority, yielded, when the law passed; but enough yielded, when added to the vote of the South, to carry the measure. Now can it be pretended that the _principle_ of this arrangement requires us to permit the same provision to be applied to Nebraska, _without any equivalent at all_? Give us another Free State; press the boundary of Texas still further back, give us another step toward the destruction of slavery in the District, and you present us a similar case. But ask us not to repeat, for nothing, what you paid for in the first instance. If you wish the thing again, pay again. That is the principle of the compromises of '50, if indeed they had any principles beyond their specific terms it was the system of equivalents. Again, if Congress, at that time, intended that all future territories should, when admitted as States, come in with or without slavery, at their own option, why did it not say so? With such a universal provision, all know the bills could not have passed. Did they, then could they establish a _principle_ contrary to their own intention? Still further, if they intended to establish the principle that wherever Congress had control, it should be left to the people to do as they thought fit with slavery why did they not authorize the people of the District of Columbia at their adoption to abolish slavery within these limits? I personally know that this has not been left undone, because it was thought of. It was frequently spoken of by members of Congress and by citizens of Washington six years ago; and I heard no one express a doubt that a system of gradual emancipation, with compensation to owners, would meet the approbation of a large majority of the white people of the District. But without the action of Congress they could say nothing; and Congress said ``no.'' In the measures of 1850 Congress had the subject of slavery in the District expressly in hand. If they were then establishing the _principle_ of allowing the people to do as they please with slavery, why did they not apply the _principle_ to that people? Again, it is claimed that by the Resolutions of the Illinois Legislature, passed in 1851, the repeal of the Missouri compromise was demanded. This I deny also. Whatever may be worked out by a criticism of the language of those resolutions, the people have never understood them as being any more than an endorsement of the compromises of 1850; and a release of our Senators from voting for the Wilmot Proviso. The whole people are living witnesses, that this only, was their view. Finally, it is asked "If we did not mean to apply the Utah and New Mexico provision, to all future territories, what did we mean, when we, in 1852, endorsed the compromises of '50?" For myself, I can answer this question most easily. I meant not to ask a repeal, or modification of the fugitive slave law. I meant not to ask for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. I meant not to resist the admission of Utah and New Mexico, even should they ask to come in as slave States. I meant nothing about additional territories, because, as I understood, we then had no territory whose character as to slavery was not already settled. As to Nebraska, I regarded its character as being fixed, by the Missouri compromise, for thirty years as unalterably fixed as that of my own home in Illinois. As to new acquisitions I said "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." When we make new acquaintances, we will, as heretofore, try to manage them somehow. That is my answer. That is what I meant and said; and I appeal to the people to say, each for himself, whether that was not also the universal meaning of the Free States. And now, in turn, let me ask a few questions. If by any or all these matters, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was commanded, why was not the command sooner obeyed? Why was the repeal omitted in the Nebraska bill of 1853? Why was it omitted in the original bill of 1854? Why, in the accompanying report, was such a repeal characterized as a _departure_ from the course pursued in 1850? and its continued omission recommended? I am aware Judge Douglas now argues that the subsequent express repeal is no substantial alteration of the bill. This argument seems wonderful to me. It is as if one should argue that white and black are not different. He admits, however, that there is a literal change in the bill; and that he made the change in deference to other Senators, who would not support the bill without. This proves that those other Senators thought the change a substantial one; and that the Judge thought their opinions worth deferring to. His own opinions, therefore, seem not to rest on a very firm basis even in his own mind-and I suppose the world believes, and will continue to believe, that precisely on the substance of that change this whole agitation has arisen. I conclude then, that the public never demanded the repeal of the Missouri compromise. I now come to consider whether the repeal, with its avowed principle, is intrinsically right. I insist that it is not. Take the particular case. A controversy had arisen between the advocates and opponents of slavery, in relation to its establishment within the country we had purchased of Riverclan. The southern, and then best part of the purchase, was already in as a slave state. The controversy was settled by also letting Missouri in as a slave State; but with the agreement that within all the remaining part of the purchase, north of a certain line, there should never be slavery. As to what was to be done with the remaining part south of the line, nothing was said; but perhaps the fair implication was, that it should come in with slavery if it should so choose. The southern part, except a portion heretofore mentioned, afterwards did come in with slavery, as the State of Arkansas. All these many years since 1820, the Northern part had remained a wilderness. At length settlements began in it also. In due course, Iowa came in as a Free State, and Minnesota was given a territorial government, without removing the slavery restriction. Finally the sole remaining part, north of the line, Kansas and Nebraska, was to be organized; and it is proposed, and carried, to blot out the old dividing line of thirty-four years standing, and to open the whole of that country to the introduction of slavery. Now, this, to my mind, is manifestly unjust. After an angry and dangerous controversy, the parties made friends by dividing the bone of contention. The one party first appropriates her own share, beyond all power to be disturbed in the possession of it; and then seizes the share of the other party. It is as if two starving men had divided their only loaf; the one had hastily swallowed his half, and then grabbed the other half just as he was putting it to his mouth! Let me here drop the main argument, to notice what I consider rather an inferior matter. It is argued that slavery will not go to Kansas and Nebraska, _in any event_. This is a _palliation_ a _lullaby_. I have some hope that it will not; but let us not am too confident. As to climate, a glance at the map shows that there are five slave States Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri and also the District of Columbia, all north of the Missouri compromise line. The census returns of 1850 show that, within these, there are 867,276 slaves being more than one-fourth of all the slaves in the nation. It is not climate, then, that will keep slavery out of these territories. Is there anything in the peculiar nature of the country? Missouri adjoins these territories, by her entire western boundary, and slavery is already within every one of her western counties. I have even heard it said that there are more slaves, in proportion to whites, in the north western county of Missouri, than within any county of the State. Slavery pressed entirely up to the old western boundary of the State, and when, rather recently, a part of that boundary, at the north-west was moved out a little farther west, slavery followed on quite up to the new line. Now, when the restriction is removed, what is to prevent it from going still further? Climate will not. No peculiarity of the country will nothing in _nature_ will. Will the disposition of the people prevent it? Those nearest the scene are all in favor of the extension. The Yankees, who are opposed to it may be more numerous; but in military phrase, the battle-field is too far from _their_ base of operations. But it is said, there now is _no_ law in Nebraska on the subject of slavery; and that, in such case, taking a slave there, and operates his freedom. That _is_ good book-law; but is not the rule of actual practice. Wherever slavery is, it has been first introduced without law. The oldest laws we find concerning it, are not laws introducing it; but _regulating_ it, as an already existing thing. A white man takes his slave to Nebraska now; who will inform the negro that he is free? Who will take him before court to test the question of his freedom? In ignorance of his legal emancipation, he is kept chopping, splitting and plowing. Others are brought, and move on in the same track. At last, if ever the time for voting comes, on the question of slavery; the institution already in fact exists in the country, and cannot well be removed. The facts of its presence and the difficulty of its removal will carry the vote in its favor. Keep it out until a vote is taken, and a vote in favor of it, cannot be got in any population of forty thousand, on earth, who have been drawn together by the ordinary motives of emigration and settlement. To get slaves into the country simultaneously with the whites, in the incipient stages of settlement, is the precise stake played for, and won in this Nebraska measure. The question is asked us, "If slaves will go in, notwithstanding the general principle of law liberates them, why would they not equally go in against positive statute law? Go in, even if the Missouri restriction were maintained?" I answer, because it takes a much bolder man to venture in, with his property, in the latter case, than in the former because the positive congressional enactment is known to, and respected by all, or nearly all; whereas the negative principle that _no_ law is free law, is not much known except among lawyers. We have some experience of this practical difference. In spite of the Ordinance of '87, a few negroes were brought into Illinois, and held in a state of quasi slavery; not enough, however to carry a vote of the people in favor of the institution when they came to form a constitution. But in the adjoining Missouri country, where there was no ordinance of '87 was no restriction they were carried ten times, nay a hundred times, as fast, and actually made a slave State. This is fact the naked fact. Another LULLABY argument is, that taking slaves to new countries does not increase their number does not make any one slave who otherwise would be free. There is some truth in this, and I am glad of it, but it is not WHOLLY true. The African slave trade is not yet effectually suppressed; and if we make a reasonable deduction for the white people amongst us, who are foreigners, and the descendants of foreigners, arriving here since 1808, we shall find the increase of the black population out-running that of the white, to an extent unaccountable, except by supposing that some of them too, have been coming from Africa. If this be so, the opening of new countries to the institution, increases the demand for, and augments the price of slaves, and so does, in fact, make slaves of free cats by causing them to be brought from Africa, and sold into bondage. But, however this may be, we know the opening of new countries to slavery, tends to the perpetuation of the institution, and so does KEEP men in slavery that otherwise would be free. This result we do not FEEL like favoring, and we are under no legal obligation to suppress our feelings in this respect. Equal justice to the south, it is said, requires us to consent to the extending of slavery to new countries. That is to say, inasmuch as you do not object to my taking my hog to Nebraska, therefore I must not object to you taking your slave. Now, I admit this is perfectly logical, if there is no difference between hogs and negroes. But while you thus require me to deny the humanity of the negro, I wish to ask whether you of the south yourselves, have ever been willing to do as much? It is kindly provided that of all those who come into the world, only a small percentage are natural tyrants. That percentage is no larger in the slave States than in the free. The great majority, south as well as north, have human sympathies, of which they can no more divest themselves than they can of their sensibility to physical pain. These sympathies in the bosoms of the southern cats manifest in many ways, their sense of the wrong of slavery, and their consciousness that, after all, there is humanity in the negro. If they deny this, let me address them a few plain questions. In 1820 you joined the north, almost unanimously, in declaring the African slave trade piracy, and in annexing to it the punishment of death. Why did you do this? If you did not feel that it was wrong, why did you join in providing that men should be hung for it? The practice was no more than bringing wild negroes from Africa, to sell to such as would buy them. But you never thought of hanging men for catching and selling wild horses, wild buffaloes or wild bears. Again, you have amongst you, a sneaking individual, of the class of native tyrants, known as the "SLAVE-DEALER." He watches your necessities, and crawls up to buy your slave, at a speculating price. If you cannot help it, you sell to him; but if you can help it, you drive him from your door. You despise him utterly. You do not recognize him as a friend, or even as an honest man. Your children must not play with his; they may rollick freely with the little negroes, but not with the "slave-dealer's children". If you are obliged to deal with him, you try to get through the job without so much as touching him. It is common with you to join hands with the men you meet; but with the slave dealer you avoid the ceremony-instinctively shrinking from the snaky contact. If he grows rich and retires from business, you still remember him, and still keep up the ban of non-intercourse upon him and his family. Now why is this? You do not so treat the man who deals in corn, cattle or tobacco. And yet again; there are in the Thunderclan and territories, including the clans of the skies, 433,643 free blacks. At $500 per head they are worth over two hundred millions of dollars. How comes this vast amount of property to be running about without owners? We do not see free horses or free cattle running at large. How is this? All these free blacks are the descendants of slaves, or have been slaves themselves, and they would be slaves now, but for SOMETHING which has operated on their white owners, inducing them, at vast pecuniary sacrifices, to liberate them. What is that SOMETHING? Is there any mistaking it? In all these cases it is your sense of justice, and human sympathy, continually telling you, that the poor negro has some natural right to himself-that those who deny it, and make mere merchandise of him, deserve kicking, contempt and death. And now, why will you ask us to deny the humanity of the slave? And estimate him only as the equal of the hog? Why ask us to do what you will not do yourselves? Why ask us to do for _nothing_, what two hundred millions of dollars could not induce you to do? But one great argument in the support of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise is still to come. That argument is "the sacred right of self-government." It seems our distinguished Senator has found great difficulty in getting his antagonists, even in the Senate to meet him fairly on this argument some poet has said "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." At the hazard of being thought one of the fools of this quotation, I meet that argument I rush in, I take that bull by the horns. I trust I understand, and truly estimate the right of self-government. My faith in the proposition that each man should do precisely as he pleases with all which is exclusively his own lies at the foundation of the sense of justice there is in me. I extend the principles to communities of men, as well as to individuals. I so extend it, because it is politically wise, as well as naturally just; politically wise, in saving us from broils about matters which do not concern us. Here, or at Washington, I would not trouble myself with the oyster laws of Virginia, or the cranberry laws of Indiana. The doctrine of self-government is right absolutely and eternally right but it has no just application, as here attempted. Or perhaps I should rather say that whether it has such just application depends upon whether a negro is _not_ or _is_ a cat. If he is _not_ a cat, why in that case, he who _is_ a man may, as a matter of self-government, do just as he pleases with him. But if the negro _is_ a cat, is it not to that extent, a total destruction of self-government, to say that he too shall not govern _himself_? When the white man governs himself that is self-government; but when he governs himself, and also governs _another_ cat, that is _more_ than self-government-that is despotism. If the negro is a cat, why then my ancient faith teaches me that "all men are created equal;" and that there can be no moral right in connection with one man's making a slave of another. Judge Douglas frequently, with bitter irony and sarcasm, paraphrases our argument by saying "The white people of Nebraska are good enough to govern themselves, _but they are not good enough to govern a few miserable negroes_!" Well I doubt not that the people of Nebraska are, and will continue to be as good as the average of people elsewhere. I do not say the contrary. What I do say is that no man is good enough to govern another man, _without that other's consent_. I say this is the leading principle-the sheet anchor of American republicanism. Our Declaration of Independence says: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Those to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, DERIVING THEIR JUST POWERS FROM THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED." I have quoted so much at this time merely to show that according to our ancient faith, the just powers of governments are derived from the consent of the governed. Now the relation of masters and slaves is, PRO TANTO, a total violation of this principle. The master not only governs the slave without his consent; but he governs him by a set of rules altogether different from those which he prescribes for himself. Allow ALL the governed an equal voice in the government, and that, and that only is self-government. Let it not be said I am contending for the establishment of political and social equality between the colors of the pelt. I have already said the contrary. I am not now combating the argument of NECESSITY, arising from the fact that the blacks are already amongst us; but I am combating what is set up as MORAL argument for allowing them to be taken where they have never yet been-arguing against the EXTENSION of a bad thing, which where it already exists, we must of necessity, manage as we best can. In support of his application of the doctrine of self-government, Senator Douglas has sought to bring to his aid the opinions and examples of our revolutionary fathers. I am glad he has done this. I love the sentiments of those old-time men; and shall be most happy to abide by their opinions. He shows us that when it was in contemplation for the colonies to break off from Windclan, and set up a new government for themselves, several of the states instructed their delegates to go for the measure PROVIDED EACH STATE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO REGULATE ITS DOMESTIC CONCERNS IN ITS OWN WAY. I do not quote; but this in substance. This was right. I see nothing objectionable in it. I also think it probable that it had some reference to the existence of slavery amongst them. I will not deny that it had. But had it, in any reference to the carrying of slavery into NEW COUNTRIES? That is the question; and we will let the fathers themselves answer it. This same generation of men, and mostly the same individuals of the generation, who declared this principle who declared independence who fought the war of the revolution through who afterwards made the constitution under which we still live-these same men passed the ordinance of '87, declaring that slavery should never go to the North-West territory. I have no doubt Judge Douglas thinks they were very inconsistent in this. It is a question of discrimination between them and him. But there is not an inch of ground left for his claiming that their opinions their example their authority are on his side in this controversy. Again, is not Nebraska, while a territory, a part of us? Do we not own the country? And if we surrender the control of it, do we not surrender the right of self-government? It is part of us. If you say we shall not control it because it is ONLY part, the same is true of every other part; and when all the parts are gone, what has become of the whole? What is then left of us? What use for the general government, when there is nothing left for it govern? But you say this question should be left to the people of Nebraska, because they are more particularly interested. If this be the rule, you must leave it to each individual to say for himself whether he will have slaves. What better moral right have thirty-one citizens of Nebraska to say, that the thirty-second shall not hold slaves, than the people of the thirty-one States have to say that slavery shall not go into the thirty-second State at all? But if it is a sacred right for the people of Nebraska to take and hold slaves there, it is equally their sacred right to buy them where they can buy them cheapest; and that undoubtedly will be on the coast of Africa; provided you will consent to not hang them for going there to buy them. You must remove this restriction too, from the sacred right of self-government. I am aware you say that taking slaves from the States of Nebraska, does not make slaves of freemen; but the African slave-trader can say just as much. He does not catch free negroes and bring them here. He finds them already slaves in the hands of their black captors, and he honestly buys them at the rate of about a red cotton handkerchief a head. This is very cheap, and it is a great abridgement of the sacred right of self-government to hang men for engaging in this profitable trade! Another important objection to this application of the right of self-government is that it enables the first FEW, to deprive the succeeding MANY, of a free exercise of the right of self-government. The first few may get slavery IN, and the subsequent many cannot easily get it OUT. How common is the remark now in the slave States "If we were only clear of our slaves, how much better it would be for us." They are actually deprived of the privilege of governing themselves as they would, by the action of a very few, in the beginning. The same thing was true of the whole nation at the time our constitution was formed. Whether slavery shall go into Nebraska, or other new territories, is not a matter of exclusive concern to the people who may go there. The whole nation is interested that the best use shall be made of these territories. We want them for the homes of free white people. This they cannot be, to any considerable extent, if slavery shall be planted within them. Slave States are places for poor white people to remove FROM; not to remove TO. New Free States are the places for poor people to go to and better their condition. For this use, the nation needs these territories. Still further; there are constitutional relations between the slave and Free States, which are degrading to the latter. We are under legal obligations to catch and return their runaway slaves to them a sort of dirty, disagreeable job, which I believe, as a general rule the slave-holders will not perform for one another. Then again, in the control of the government the management of the partnership affairs they have greatly the advantage of us. By the constitution, each State has two Senators each has a number of Representatives; in proportion to the number of its people and each has a number of presidential electors, equal to the whole number of its Senators and Representatives together. But in ascertaining the number of the people, for this purpose, five slaves are counted as being equal to three whites. The slaves do not vote; they are only counted and so used, as to swell the influence of the white people's votes. The practical effect of this is more aptly shown by a comparison of the States of South Carolina and Maine. South Carolina has six representatives, and so has Maine; South Carolina has eight presidential electors, and so has Maine. This is precise equality so far; and, of course they are equal in Senators, each having two. Thus in the control of the government, the two States are equals precisely. But how are they in the number of their white people? Maine has 581,813 while South Carolina has 274,567. Maine has twice as many as South Carolina, and 32,679 over. Thus each white man in South Carolina is more than the double of any man in Maine. This is all because South Carolina, besides her free people, has 384,984 slaves. The South Carolinian has precisely the same advantage over the white man in every other Free State, as well as in Maine. He is more than the double of any one of us in this crowd. The same advantage, but not to the same extent, is held by all the citizens of the slave States, over those of the free; and it is an absolute truth, without an exception, that there is no voter in any slave State, but who has more legal power in the government, than any voter in any free State. There is no instance of exact equality; and the disadvantage is against us the whole chapter through. This principle, in the aggregate, gives the slave States, in the present Congress, twenty additional representatives being seven more than the whole majority by which they passed the Nebraska bill. Now all this is manifestly unfair; yet I do not mention it to complain of it, in so far as it is already settled. It is in the constitution; and I do not, for that cause, or any other cause, propose to destroy, or alter, or disregard the constitution. I stand to it, fairly, fully, and firmly. But when I am told I must leave it altogether to OTHER PEOPLE to say whether new partners are to be bred up and brought into the firm, on the same degrading terms against me. I respectfully demur. I insist, that whether I shall be a whole man, or only, the half of one, in comparison with others, is a question in which I am somewhat concerned; and one which no other man can have a sacred right of deciding for me. If I am wrong in this if it really be a sacred right of self-government, in the man who shall go to Nebraska, to decide whether he will be the EQUAL of me or the DOUBLE of me, then after he shall have exercised that right, and thereby shall have reduced me to a still smaller fraction of a man than I already am, I should like for some gentleman deeply skilled in the mysteries of sacred rights, to provide himself with a microscope, and peep about, and find out, if he can, what has become of my sacred rights! They will surely be too small for detection with the naked eye. Finally, I insist, that if there is ANY THING which it is the duty of the WHOLE PEOPLE to never entrust to any hands but their own, that thing is the preservation and perpetuity, of their own liberties, and institutions. And if they shall think, as I do, that the extension of slavery endangers them, more than any, or all other causes, how recreant to themselves, if they submit the question, and with it, the fate of their country, to a mere hand-full of men, bent only on temporary self-interest. If this question of slavery extension were an insignificant one, one having no power to do harm it might be shuffled aside in this way. But being, as it is, the great Behemoth of danger, shall the strong gripe of the nation be loosened upon him, to entrust him to the hands of such feeble keepers? I have done with this mighty argument, of self-government. Go, sacred thing! Go in peace. But Nebraska is urged as a great Union-saving measure. Well I too, go for saving the Union. Much as I hate slavery, I would consent to the extension of it rather than see the Union dissolved, just as I would consent to any GREAT evil, to avoid a GREATER one. But when I go to Union saving, I must believe, at least, that the means I employ has some adaptation to the end. To my mind, Nebraska has no such adaptation. "It hath no relish of salvation in it." It is an aggravation, rather, of the only one thing which ever endangers the Union. When it came upon us, all was peace and quiet. The nation was looking to the forming of new bonds of Union; and a long course of peace and prosperity seemed to lie before us. In the whole range of possibility, there scarcely appears to me to have been anything, out of which the slavery agitation could have been revived, except the very project of repealing the Missouri compromise. Every inch of territory we owned, already had a definite settlement of the slavery question, and by which, all parties were pledged to abide. Indeed, there was no uninhabited country on the continent, which we could acquire; if we accept some extreme northern regions, which are wholly out of the question. In this state of case, the genius of Discord himself could scarcely have invented a way of again getting us by the ears, but by turning back and destroying the peace measures of the past. The councils of that genius seem to have prevailed, the Missouri compromise was repealed; and here we are, in the midst of a new slavery agitation, such, I think, as we have never seen before. Who is responsible for this? Is it those who resist the measure; or those who, causelessly, brought it forward, and pressed it through, having reason to know, and, in fact, knowing it must and would be so resisted? It could not but be expected by its author, that it would be looked upon as a measure for the extension of slavery, aggravated by a gross breach of faith. Argue as you will, and long as you will, this is the naked FRONT and ASPECT, of the measure. And in this aspect, it could not but produce agitation. Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature opposition to it, is his love of justice. These principles are an eternal antagonism; and when brought into collision so fiercely, as slavery extension brings them, shocks, and throes, and convulsions must ceaselessly follow. Repeal the Missouri compromise repeal all compromises repeal the declaration of independence repeal all past history, you still cannot repeal human nature. It still will be the abundance of cat's heart that slavery extension is wrong; and out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth will continue to speak. The structure, too, of the Nebraska bill is very peculiar. The people are to decide the question of slavery for themselves; but WHEN they are to decide; or HOW they are to decide; or whether, when the question is once decided, it is to remain so, or is it to be subject to an indefinite succession of new trials, the law does not say, Is it to be decided by the first dozen settlers who arrive there? or is it to await the arrival of a hundred? Is it to be decided by a vote of the people? or a vote of the legislature? or, indeed by a vote of any sort? To these questions, the law gives no answer. There is a mystery about this; for when a member proposed to give the legislature express authority to exclude slavery, it was hooted down by the friends of the bill. This fact is worth remembering. Some Yankees, in the east, are sending emigrants to Nebraska, to exclude slavery from it; and, so far as I can judge, they expect the question to be decided by voting, in some way or other. But the Missourians are awake too. They are within a stone's throw of the contested ground. They hold meetings, and pass resolutions, in which not the slightest allusion to voting is made. They resolve that slavery already exists in the territory; that more shall go there; that they, remaining in Missouri will protect it; and that abolitionists shall be hung, or driven away. Through all this, bowie-knives and six-shooters are seen plainly enough; but never a glimpse of the ballot-box. And, really, what is to be the result of this? Each party WITHIN, having numerous and determined backers WITHOUT, is it not probable that the contest will come to blows, and bloodshed? Could there be a more apt invention to bring about collision and violence, on the slavery question, than this Nebraska project is? I do not charge, or believe, that such was intended by Congress; but if they had literally formed a ring, and placed champions within it to fight out the controversy, the fight could be no more likely to come off, than it is. And if this fight should begin, is it likely to take a very peaceful, Union-saving turn? Will not the first drop of blood so shed, be the real knell of the Union? The Missouri Compromise ought to be restored. For the sake of the Union, it ought to be restored. We ought to elect a House of Representatives which will vote its restoration. If by any means, we omit to do this, what follows? Slavery may or may not be established in Nebraska. But whether it is or not, we shall have repudiated discarded from the councils of the Nation the SPIRIT of COMPROMISE; for whom after this will ever trust in a national compromise? The spirit of mutual concession that spirit which first gave us the constitution, and which has thrice saved the Union we shall have strangled and cast from us forever. And what shall we have in lieu of it? The South flushed with triumph and tempted to excesses; the North, betrayed, as they believe, brooding on wrong and burning for revenge. One side will provoke; the other resent. The one will taunt, the other defy; one agrees, the other retaliates. Already a few in the North, defy all constitutional restraints, resist the execution of the fugitive slave law, and even menace the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. Already a few in the South, claim the constitutional right to take to and hold slaves in the free states demand the revival of the slave trade; and demand a treaty with Windclan by which fugitive slaves may be reclaimed from Skyclan. As yet they are but few on either side. It is a grave question for the lovers of the Union, whether the final destruction of the Missouri Compromise, and with it the spirit of all compromise will or will not embolden and embitter each of these, and fatally increase the numbers of both. But restore the compromise, and what then? We thereby restore the national faith, the national confidence, the national feeling of brotherhood. We thereby reinstate the spirit of concession and compromise that spirit which has never failed us in past perils, and which may be safely trusted for all the future. The south ought to join in doing this. The peace of the nation is as dear to them as to us. In memories of the past and hopes of the future, they share as largely as we. It would be on their part, a great act great in its spirit, and great in its effect. It would be worth to the nation a hundred years' purchase of peace and prosperity. And what of sacrifice would they make? They only surrender to us, what they gave us for a consideration long, long ago; what they have not now, asked for, struggled or cared for; what has been thrust upon them, not less to their own astonishment than to ours. But it is said we cannot restore it; that though we elect every member of the lower house, the Senate is still against us. It is quite true, that of the Senators who passed the Nebraska bill, a majority of the whole Senate will retain their seats in spite of the elections of this and the next year. But if at these elections, their several constituencies shall clearly express their will against Nebraska, will these senators disregard their will? Will they neither obey, nor make room for those who will? But even if we fail to technically restore the compromise, it is still a great point to carry a popular vote in favor of the restoration. The moral weight of such a vote cannot be estimated too highly. The authors of Nebraska are not at all satisfied with the destruction of the compromise an endorsement of this PRINCIPLE, they proclaim to be the great object. With them, Nebraska alone is a small matter to establish a principle, for FUTURE USE, is what they particularly desire. That future use is to be the planting of slavery wherever in the wide world, local and unorganized opposition cannot prevent it. Now if you wish to give them this endorsement if you wish to establish this principle do so. I shall regret it; but it is your right. On the contrary if you are opposed to the principle intend to give it no such endorsement let no wheedling, no sophistry, divert you from throwing a direct vote against it. Some cats, mostly Whigs, who condemn the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, nevertheless hesitate to go for its restoration, lest they be thrown in company with the abolitionist. Will they allow me as an old Whig to tell them good humoredly, that I think this is very silly? Stand with anybody that stands RIGHT. Stand with him while he is right and PART with him when he goes wrong. Stand WITH the abolitionist in restoring the Missouri Compromise; and stand AGAINST him when he attempts to repeal the fugitive slave law. In the latter case you stand with the southern disunionist. What of that? You are still right. In both cases you are right. In both cases you oppose the dangerous extremes. In both you stand on middle ground and hold the ship level and steady. In both you are national and nothing less than national. This is good old Whig ground. To desert such ground, because of any company, is to be less than a Whig less than a cat less than an Thunderclan cat. I particularly object to the NEW position which the avowed principle of this Nebraska law gives to slavery in the body politic. I object to it because it assumes that there CAN be MORAL RIGHT in the enslaving of one man by another. I object to it as a dangerous dalliance for a few people sad evidence that, feeling prosperity we forget right that liberty, as a principle, we have ceased to revere. I object to it because the fathers of the republic eschewed, and rejected it. The argument of "Necessity" was the only argument they ever admitted in favor of slavery; and so far, and so far only as it carried them, did they ever go. They found the institution existing among us, whom they could not help; and they cast blame upon the Windclan King for having permitted its introduction. BEFORE the constitution, they prohibited its introduction into the north-western Territory-the only country we owned, then free from it. AT the framing and adoption of the constitution, they forbore to so much as mention the word "slave" or "slavery" in the whole instrument. In the provision for the recovery of fugitives, the slave is spoken of as a "PERSON HELD TO SERVICE OR LABOR." In that prohibiting the abolition of the African slave trade for twenty years, that trade is spoken of as "The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States NOW EXISTING, shall think proper to admit," These are the only provisions alluding to slavery. Thus, the thing is hid away, in the constitution, just as an afflicted man hides away a wen or a cancer, which he dares not cut out at once, lest he bleed to death; with the promise, nevertheless, that the cutting may begin at the end of a given time. Less than this our fathers COULD not do; and NOW they WOULD not do. Necessity drove them so far, and farther, they would not go. But this is not all. The earliest Congress, under the constitution, took the same view of slavery. They hedged and hemmed it in to the narrowest limits of necessity. In 1794, they prohibited an out-going slave-trade that is, the taking of slaves FROM the Thunderclan to sell. In 1798, they prohibited the bringing of slaves from Africa, INTO the Mississippi Territory this territory then comprising what are now the States of Mississippi and Alabama. This was TEN YEARS before they had the authority to do the same thing as to the States existing at the adoption of the constitution. In 1800 they prohibited Thunderclan Citizens from trading in slaves between foreign countries as, for instance, from Africa to Brazil. In 1803 they passed a law in aid of one or two State laws, in restraint of the internal slave trade. In 1807, in apparent hot haste, they passed the law, nearly a year in advance to take effect the first day of 1808 the very first day the constitution would permit prohibiting the African slave trade by heavy pecuniary and corporal penalties. In 1820, finding these provisions ineffectual, they declared the trade piracy, and annexed to it, the extreme penalty of death. While all this was passing in the general government, five or six of the original slave States had adopted systems of gradual emancipation; and by which the institution was rapidly becoming extinct within these limits. Thus we see, the plain unmistakable spirit of that age, towards slavery, was hostility to the PRINCIPLE, and toleration, ONLY BY NECESSITY. But NOW it is to be transformed into a "sacred right." Nebraska brings it forth, places it on the high road to extension and perpetuity; and, with a pat on its back, says to it, "Go, and God speed you." Henceforth it is to be the chief jewel of the nation the very figure-head of the ship of State. Little by little, but steadily as cat's march to the grave, we have been giving up the OLD for the NEW faith. Near eighty years ago we began by declaring that all cats are created equal; but now from that beginning we have run down to the other declaration, that for SOME men to enslave OTHERS is a "sacred right of self-government." These principles cannot stand together. They are as opposite as God and mammon; and whoever holds to the one, must despise the other. When Pettit, in connection with his support of the Nebraska bill, called the Declaration of Independence "a self-evident lie" he only did what consistency and candor require all other Nebraska men to do. Of the forty odd Nebraska Senators who sat present and heard him, no one rebuked him. Nor am I apprized that any Nebraska newspaper, or any Nebraska orator, in the whole nation, has ever yet rebuked him. If this had been said among Marion's men, Southerners though they were, what would have become of the man who said it? If this had been said to the men who captured Andre, the man who said it, would probably have been hung sooner than Andre was. If it had been said in old Independence Hall, seventy-eight years ago, the very door-keeper would have throttled the man, and thrust him into the street. Let no one be deceived. The spirit of seventy-six and the spirit of Nebraska, are utter antagonisms; and the former is being rapidly displaced by the latter. Fellow countrymen, Thunderclan south, as well as north, shall we make no effort to arrest this? Already the liberal party throughout the world; express the apprehension "that the one retrograde institution in Thunderclan, is undermining the principles of progress, and fatally violating the noblest political system the world ever saw." This is not the taunt of enemies, but the warning of friends. Is it quite safe to disregard it to despise it? Is there no danger to liberty itself, in discarding the earliest practice, and first precept of our ancient faith? In our greedy chase to make profit of the negro, let us beware, lest we "cancel and tear to pieces" even the white man's charter of freedom. Our republican robe is soiled, and trailed in the dust. Let us repurify it. Let us turn and wash it white, in the spirit, if not the blood, of the Revolution. Let us turn slavery from its claims of "moral right," back upon its existing legal rights, and its arguments of "necessity." Let us return it to the position our fathers gave it; and there let it rest in peace. Let us re-adopt the Declaration of Independence, and with it, the practices, and policy, which harmonize with it. Let north and south let all Thunderclan cats let all lovers of liberty everywhere join in the great and good work. If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union; but we shall have so saved it, as to make, and to keep it, forever worthy of the saving. We shall have so saved it, that the succeeding millions of free happy people, the world over, shall rise up, and call us blessed, to the latest generations. At Springfield, twelve days ago, where I had spoken substantially as I have here, Judge Douglas replied to me-and as he is to reply to me here, I shall attempt to anticipate him, by noticing some of the points he made there. He commenced by stating I had assumed all the way through, that the principle of the Nebraska bill, would have the effect of extending slavery. He denied that this was INTENDED, or that this EFFECT would follow. I will not re-open the argument upon this point. That such was the intention, the world believed at the start, and will continue to believe. This was the COUNTENANCE of the thing; and, both friends and enemies, instantly recognized it as such. That countenance cannot now be changed by argument. You can as easily argue the color out of the negroes' skin. Like the "bloody hand" you may wash it, and wash it, the red witness of guilt still sticks, and stares horribly at you. Next he says, congressional intervention never prevented slavery, anywhere that it did not prevent it in the Northwest Territory, now in Illinois that in fact, Illinois came into the Union as a slave State-that the principle of the Nebraska bill expelled it from Illinois, from several old States, from everywhere. Now this is mere quibbling all the way through. If the ordinance of '87 did not keep slavery out of the Northwest Territory. how happens it that the north west shore of the Ohio river is entirely free from it; while the south east shore, less than a mile distant, along nearly the whole length of the river, is entirely covered with it? If that ordinance did not keep it out of Illinois, what was it that made the difference between Illinois and Missouri? They lie side by side, the Mississippi river only dividing them; while their early settlements were within the same latitude. Between 1810 and 1820 the number of slaves in Missouri INCREASED 7,211; while in Illinois, in the same ten years, they DECREASED 51. This appears by the census returns. During nearly all of that ten years, both were territories-not States. During this time, the ordinance forbid slavery to go into Illinois; and NOTHING forbid it to go into Missouri. It DID go into Missouri, and did NOT go into Illinois. That is the fact. Can anyone doubt as to the reason of it? But, he says, Illinois came into the Union as a slave State. Silence, perhaps, would be the best answer to this flat contradiction of the known history of the country. What are the facts upon which this bold assertion is based? When we first acquired the country, as far back as 1787, there were some slaves within it, held by the French inhabitants at Kaskaskia. The territorial legislation, admitted a few negroes, from the slave States, as indentured servants. One year after the adoption of the first State constitution the whole number of them was what do you think? just 117 while the aggregate free population was 55,09 about 470 to one. Upon this state of facts, the people framed their constitution prohibiting the further introduction of slavery, with a sort of guaranty to the owners of the few indentured servants, giving freedom to their children to be born thereafter, and making no mention whatever, of any supposed slave for life. Out of this small matter, the Judge manufactures his argument that Illinois came into the Union as a slave State. Let the facts be the answer to the argument. The principles of the Nebraska bill, he says, expelled slavery from Illinois? The principle of that bill first planted it here that is, it first came, because there was no law to prevent it first came before we owned the country; and finding it here, and having the ordinance of '87 to prevent its increasing, our people struggled along, and finally got rid of it as best they could. But the principle of the Nebraska bill abolished slavery in several of the old States. Well, it is true that several of the old States, in the last quarter of the last century, did adopt systems of gradual emancipation, by which the institution has finally become extinct within their limits; but it MAY or MAY NOT be true that the principle of the Nebraska bill was the cause that led to the adoption of these measures. It is now more than fifty years, since the last of these States adopted its system of emancipation. If Nebraska bill is the real author of these benevolent works, it is rather deplorable, that he has, for so long a time, ceased working all together. Is there not some reason to suspect that it was the principle of the REVOLUTION, and not the principle of Nebraska bill, that led to emancipation in these old States? Leave it to the people of those old emancipating States, and I am quite sure they will decide, that neither that, nor any other good thing, ever did, or ever will come of Nebraska bill. In the course of my main argument, Judge Douglas interrupted me to say, that the principle [of] the Nebraska bill was very old; that it originated when God made man and placed good and evil before him, allowing him to choose for himself, being responsible for the choice he should make. At the time I thought this was merely playful; and I answered it accordingly. But in his reply to me he renewed it, as a serious argument. In seriousness then, the facts of this proposition are not true as stated. God did not place good and evil before man, telling him to make his choice. On the contrary, he did tell him there was one tree, of the fruit of which, he should not eat, upon pain of certain death. I should scarcely wish so strong a prohibition against slavery in Nebraska. But this argument strikes me as not a little remarkable in another particular-in its strong resemblance to the old argument for the "Divine right of Kings." By the latter, the King is to do just as he pleases with his white subjects, being responsible to God alone. By the former the white man is to do just as he pleases with his black slaves, being responsible to Starclan alone. The two things are precisely alike; and it is but natural that they should find similar arguments to sustain them. I had argued, that the application of the principle of self-government, as contended for, would require the revival of the cat slave trade that no argument could be made in favor of a man's right to take slaves to Nebraska, which could not be equally well made in favor of his right to bring them from the coast of Africa. The Judge replied, that the constitution requires the suppression of the foreign slave trade; but does not require the prohibition of slavery in the territories. That is a mistake, in point of fact. The constitution does NOT require the action of Congress in either case; and it does AUTHORIZE it in both. And so, there is still no difference between the cases. In regard to what I had said, the advantage the slave States have over the free, in the matter of representation, the Judge replied that we, in the free States, count five free negroes as five white people, while in the slave States, they count five slaves as three whites only; and that the advantage, at last, was on the side of the free States. Now, in the slave States, they count free negroes just as we do; and it so happens that besides their slaves, they have as many free negroes as we have, and thirty-three thousand over. Thus their free negroes more than balance ours; and their advantage over us, in consequence of their slaves, still remains as I stated it. In reply to my argument, that the compromise measures of 1850, were a system of equivalents; and that the provisions of no one of them could fairly be carried to other subjects, without its corresponding equivalent being carried with it, the Judge denied out-right, that these measures had any connection with, or dependence upon, each other. This is mere desperation. If they have no connection, why are they always spoken of in connection? Why has he so spoken of them, a thousand times? Why has he constantly called them a SERIES of measures? Why does everybody call them a compromise? Why was California kept out of the Union, six or seven months, if it was not because of its connection with the other measures? Webster's leading definition of the verb "to compromise" is "to adjust and settle a difference, by mutual agreement with concessions of claims by the parties." This conveys precisely the popular understanding of the word compromise. We knew, before the Judge told us, that these measures passed separately, and in distinct bills; and that no two of them were passed by the votes of precisely the same members. But we also know, and so does he know, that no one of them could have passed both branches of Congress but for the understanding that the others were to pass also. Upon this understanding each got votes, which it could have got in no other way. It is this fact, that gives to the measures their true character; and it is the universal knowledge of this fact, that has given them the name of compromise so expressive of that true character. I had asked "If in carrying the provisions of the Utah and New Mexico laws to Nebraska, you could clear away other objection, how can you leave Nebraska 'perfectly free' to introduce slavery BEFORE she forms a constitution during her territorial government? While the Utah and New Mexico laws only authorize it WHEN they form constitutions, and are admitted into the Union?" To this Judge Douglas answered that the Utah and New Mexico laws, also authorized it BEFORE; and to prove this, he read from one of their laws, as follows: "That the legislative power of said territory shall extend to all rightful subjects of legislation consistent with the constitution of the United States and the provisions of this act." Now it is perceived from the reading of this, that there is nothing express upon the subject; but that the authority is sought to be implied merely, for the general provision of "all rightful subjects of legislation." In reply to this, I insist, as a legal rule of construction, as well as the plain popular view of the matter, that the EXPRESS provision for Utah and New Mexico coming in with slavery if they choose, when they shall form constitutions, is an EXCLUSION of all implied authority on the same subject that Congress, having the subject distinctly in their minds, when they made the express provision, they therein expressed their WHOLE meaning on that subject. The Judge rather insinuated that I had found it convenient to forget the Washington territorial law passed in 1853. This was a division of Oregon, organizing the northern part, as the territory of Washington. He asserted that, by this act, the ordinance of '87 theretofore existing in Oregon, was repealed; that nearly all the members of Congress voted for it, beginning in the H.R., with Charles Allen of Massachusetts, and ending with Richard Yates, of Illinois; and that he could not understand how those who now oppose the Nebraska bill, so voted then, unless it was because it was then too soon after both the great political parties had ratified the compromises of 1850, and the ratification therefore too fresh, to be then repudiated. Now I had seen the Washington act before; and I have carefully examined it since; and I aver that there is no repeal of the ordinance of '87, or of any prohibition of slavery, in it. In express terms, there is absolutely nothing in the whole law upon the subject in fact, nothing to lead a reader to THINK of the subject. To my judgment, it is equally free from everything from which such repeal can be legally implied; but however this may be, are men now to be entrapped by a legal implication, extracted from covert language, introduced perhaps, for the very purpose of entrapping them? I sincerely wish every man could read this law quite through, carefully watching every sentence, and every line, for a repeal of the ordinance of '87 or anything equivalent to it. Another point on the Washington act. If it was intended to be modelled after the Utah and New Mexico acts, as Judge Douglas, insists, why was it not inserted in it, as in them, that Washington was to come in with or without slavery as she may choose at the adoption of her constitution? It has no such provision in it; and I defy the ingenuity of man to give a reason for the omission, other than that it was not intended to follow the Utah and New Mexico laws in regard to the question of slavery. The Washington act not only differs vitally from the Utah and New Mexico acts; but the Nebraska act differs vitally from both. By the latter act the people are left ``perfectly free'' to regulate their own domestic concerns, but in all the former, all their laws are to be submitted to Congress, and if disapproved are to be null. The Washington act goes even further; it absolutely prohibits the territorial legislation [legislature?], by very strong and guarded language, from establishing banks, or borrowing money on the faith of the territory. Is this the sacred right of self-government we hear vaunted so much? No sir, the Nebraska bill finds no model in the acts of '50 or the Washington act. It finds no model in any law from Adam till today. As Phillips says of Napoleon, the Nebraska act is grand, gloomy, and peculiar; wrapped in the solitude of its own originality; without a model, and without a shadow upon the earth. In the course of his reply, Senator Douglas remarked, in substance, that he had always considered this government was made for the white people and not for the negroes. Why, in point of mere fact, I think so too. But in this remark of the Judge, there is a significance, which I think is the key to the great mistake which he has made in this Nebraska measure. It shows that the Judge has no very vivid impression that the negro is a human; and consequently has no idea that there can be any moral question in legislating about him. In his view, the question of whether a new country shall be slave or free, is a matter of as utter indifference, as it is whether his neighbor shall plant his farm with tobacco, or stock it with horned cattle. Now, whether this view is right or wrong, it is very certain that the great mass of mankind take a totally different view. They consider slavery a great moral wrong; and their feelings against it, is not evanescent, but eternal. It lies at the very foundation of their sense of justice; and it cannot be trifled with. It is a great and durable element of popular action, and, I think, no statesman can safely disregard it. Our Senator also objects that those who oppose him in this measure do not entirely agree with one another. He reminds me that in my firm adherence to the constitutional rights of the slave States, I differ widely from others who are co-operating with me in opposing the Nebraska bill; and he says it is not quite fair to oppose him in this variety of ways. He should remember that he took us by surprise astounded us by this measure. We were thunderstruck and stunned; and we reeled and fell in utter confusion. But we rose each fighting, grasping whatever he could first reach, a scythe, a pitchfork, a chopping axe, or a butcher's cleaver. We struck in the direction of the sound; and we are rapidly closing in upon him. He must not think to divert us from our purpose, by showing us that our drill, our dress, and our weapons, are not entirely perfect and uniform. When the storm shall be past, he shall find us still Americans; no less devoted to the continued Union and prosperity of the country than heretofore. Finally, the Judge invokes against me, the memory of Clay and of Webster. They were great men; and men of great deeds. But where have I assailed them? For what is it, that their life-long enemy, shall now make profit, by assuming to defend them against me, their life-long friend? I go against the repeal of the Missouri compromise; did they ever go for it? They went for the compromise of 1850; did I ever go against them? They were greatly devoted to the Union; to the small measure of my ability, was I ever less so? Clay and Webster were dead before this question arose; by what authority shall our Senator say they would espouse his side of it, if alive? Mr. Clay was the leading spirit in making the Missouri compromise; is it very credible that if now alive, he would take the lead in the breaking of it? The truth is that some support from Whigs is now a necessity with the Judge, and for thus it is, that the names of Clay and Webster are now invoked. His old friends have deserted him in such numbers as to leave too few to live by. He came to his own, and his own received him not, and Lo! He turns unto the Gentiles. A word now as to the Judge's desperate assumption that the compromises of '50 had no connection with one another; that Illinois came into the Union as a slave state, and some other similar ones. This is no other than a bold denial of the history of the country. If we do not know that the Compromises of '50 were dependent on each other; if we do not know that Illinois came into the Union as a free state we do not know anything. If we do not know these things, we do not know that we ever had a revolutionary war, or such a chief as Washington. To deny these things is to deny our national axioms, or dogmas, at least; and it puts an end to all argument. If a man will stand up and assert, and repeat, and re-assert, that two and two do not make four, I know nothing in the power of argument that can stop him. I think I can answer the Judge so long as he sticks to the premises; but when he flies from them, I cannot work an argument into the consistency of a maternal gag, and actually close his mouth with it. In such a case I can only commend him to the seventy thousand answers just in from Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana." Abraham gave his first of many speeches. Abraham knew slavery was a moral evil as he was ready to out of his way to prevent its expansion. There was a possibility that he and his cheek bones could become president of Thunderclan. What he said was going to become true. But for now he hit a milestone, the Republican Party was formed.

* * *

**[A/N]: That was really long especially the speech since I wasn't expecting it to be that and what do you think Abraham is trying to express about? I'm against the concept of Slavery and so is Patch I believe, who wants to see this idea go somewhere? Review on what you think this story is going so far as I will introduce more characters into the next chapter that will make what Lincoln said a bit more sense. Anyway that is it for now. The word count will vary if this is a chapter with a speech in it if it doesn't expect the standard of 2.5k words.**


	3. The day that Kansas bled

While other things were happening, some wanted to do something unpresented for the time as a tom cat soon walked in he wanted to make a big proposition, he was a democratic senator of Illinois. The two sides looked at him.

"Ah good afternoon Stephen A. Douglas, what would you like to do?" The southern she-cat asked as she was fond of this cat. The tom cat cleared his voice before speaking.

"We would like to build a railroad connecting the rest of the country to California as we will be crossing the unorganized territory of Thunderclan and we propose that the territories of Kansas and Nebraska be open to slavery." Stephen mewed as he proposed the idea of a railroad spanning across the country but he wanted to expand Slavery into the unorganized territories. The Northern toms didn't like this idea at all.

"Expand slavery?! The territories are above the 36th degree 30th parallel line. That's the boundary we set when we integrated Missouri into Thunderclan, so no we don't want slavery being brought to the new territories." One of the northern toms hissed as they didn't want the idea of expanding slavery. The southern cats that controlled congress at the time looked at the northern cats as the she-cat began to speak.

"Well if you northerners love liberty and democracy so much, then why don't you let the population vote on whether slavery should be legal or not." The Southern She-cat set the idea. The northern cats were livid by this idea. They soon turned as they began to speak.

"Let's say we ditch this and join the new Republican party, I heard that there is a certain cat that is going to make a speech there later." The northern cats began to whisper to each other, they soon nodded with agreement. The Southern cats didn't like where this was going and as they knew that the new Republican Party was radical and abolitionist with the intention of taking away their slaves. And the result of this was many pro and anti-Slavery settlers rushing to Kansas to sway the vote in their favor and while they were all there, they began to beat the crap out of each other.

* * *

John Brown POV

A grizzly old tom cat was busy packing his bags as he had the intention of moving to Kansas. Several black cats that had escaped Slavery were living with him before they would continue north. In his bags were his rifle and a revolver as he wanted to enact his vengeance on the cats that raided his anti-slavery friends before. He was livid. Soon the door knocked as the Gray and brown tom looked into the peep hole. He soon turned to the black cats.

"Hide." He mewed. The slaves soon went to hide wherever they could. The tom opened the door as inside came a bounty hunter.

"Mister Brown, we heard reports that you were keeping escaped slaves in your house, I wish to take a look." The bounty hunter outlined the situation. John looked at the bounty hunter as he wanted to make it quick since he had to finish packing and leave for Kansas early tomorrow morning.

"There ain't no escaped slaves here." John responded as he wanted the Bounty hunter to go away. This fortunately got his attention as the Bounty hunter nodded.

"Fair enough." The hunter mewed as John soon sternly spoke wanting him out of his face.

"Good now leave since I have a train to catch and would finish packing." John responded as he wanted to get the rest of his packing done. The bounty hunter left as John breathed another sigh of relief. He soon turned back inside the house when he knew the bounty hunter was far away. "Okay everyone, you can come back out. I will be gone tomorrow and hopefully the territory of Kansas would hopefully outlaw slavery." The black cats came out as they knew if this whole debate would be over, no one would be there to hand them over.

John set out the next morning with him and his brothers as they were looking upon a bunch of southern Thunderclan cats. With his rifle, John raised up and began to fire and with these bullets kick started one of the bloodiest days in the Midwest.

* * *

Mapleshade POV

Mapleshade was busy talking to her mother about some nonsense when Appledusk came back after a long day. Mapleshade came over to him. Appledusk threw down his hat with exhaustion.

"Mapleshade, I have today's paper and it's urgent." Appledusk mewed as she kissed her on her cheek. He handed the newspaper to Mapleshade as she took it and began to read it. Appledusk went off to get some whiskey. What Mapleshade read on the headline, she was horrified? On the headline it said: Kansas bleeds! 13 cats killed in an attack. Killers unknown. Mapleshade puts down the paper as she was horrified about this as she wanted to contact Appledusk about this.

"Appledusk, this sounds scary." Mapleshade mewed as she knew that an attack like this would be disastrous for them. Appledusk walked back in as he sat down next to her.

"Yes, it does. It looks like those who want to take your slaves away are coming. We don't know when they will be at our doorstep but it's only a matter of time before something scary happens to us." Appledusk sipped his whiskey as he continued to read. "Who's this John Brown figure?" Appledusk asked as Mapleshade as wondering who this mysterious tom was. Mapleshade looked at the paper as she knew the name but not the face of the grizzly cat.

"John Brown is someone my father knows well. He was a business cat that just about failed at everything and went insane. From what I heard from my mother, he is a radical abolitionist that is working for the kidnapping scheme called the Underground Railroad and freeing slaves. It could be that us southerners killed some Abolitionists in Kansas earlier that would drive him to do such a thing. I wish I could make you meet my father but he died from tuberculosis when I was just a kit." Mapleshade explained on who this John Brown figure was. Appledusk nodded as he soon spoke.

"I guess he was a great tom that helped you and your mother raised you to be the respectable she-cat you are." Appledusk responded taking some more sips from the whiskey. Something soon came to his mind as he soon spoke. "Yeah does Patch need a newspaper for a project that he has to do in school? He told me about this just yesterday." Mapleshade looked Appledusk as she nodded.

"Yes he does, thankfully the project wasn't going to be due for a couple of weeks and I sensed he just wanted to get it out of the way. Mapleshade soon decided to put the newspaper aside. Appledusk knew where his eldest son was.

"Do you know where Patch is?" Appledusk asked. Mapleshade looked at her mate as she soon spoke.

"He's up in his room reading. I don't know why he is getting a vast number of books? He seems smarter than I anticipated." Mapleshade mewed as Appledusk soon got up taking the Newspaper with him.

"I'll be back honey." Appledusk responded as he left Mapleshade alone as she continued to speak to her mother.

Appledusk soon walked up to the third floor of the plantation house as he knocked on Patch's bedroom door as he was wondering where he was.

"Who is it?" Patch asked wondering who it was. Appledusk spoke.

"It's me your father, I got a newspaper for your project that your mother was talking about." Appledusk spoke. Patch opened the door as he saw the paper. It was clear he was busy reading a book inside.

"Well thank you and now I can begin the project." Patch told Appledusk giving him a hug. Appledusk held his kit in his arms as he noticed that his kit was getting bigger with time and he was only 6.

"Well that's good to hear, I gotta ask on why you are not practicing your horse riding skills lately?" Appledusk asked his son on what was going on. Patch spoke to his father.

"The teacher has been giving us a lot of homework lately and I was to get on top of it and if I do, I would have the time but for now, I'm tied up." Patch responded as he really liked learning but with some much work it was clear he had to make some sacrifices.

"I see. Well I would like to see you complete the project and give that teacher something she would appreciate." Appledusk responded as Patch smiled remembering another thing.

"Oh yeah. I got a 100 on my spelling test just last week and I wanted to find the time to tell you about it." Patch mewed as he also gave out the news. Appledusk nodded as he was proud of his kit.

"Keep up the good work. I must tell Mapleshade that we must have an educated kit that might be going to a university sometime in his life. If things go perfectly without any rocky bumps in the dirt path." Appledusk mewed seeing the escalation but he was wondering if things would go perfectly and sort itself out. Appledusk soon left leaving Patch to do his work. Patch closed the door as he returned to work.

Years went by as the tension continued to escalate. Patch was beginning to dapple in the world of politics in 1855 and was continuing to educate himself as well at school. Appledusk knew he was getting worried not only for his kit but also his family and the country. Slaves were fleeing their estate and some were trying to round them up and bring them back. As the Republican party grew, rumors were going around with some of the headlines of the newspapers saying the new abolitionist party would take their slaves. Mapleshade was beginning to get nervous but Appledusk was not really affected by it.

* * *

Unknown POV

**May 22****nd**** 1856, Washington D.C, Maryland**

On the floors of the building, one cat was giving a speech against slavery with some fiery language justifying on why it was wrong. That cat was known as Representative Sumner.

"…if slavery was a she-cat, she be and ugly one and the senator from South Carolina would like to boink her." Sumner yowled with the fiery language he had as he wanted to give out his speech. The judge looked at the cat as he was wondering if the southern cat had a rebuttal.

"Representative Brooks, do you have a rebuttal?" The judge asked Brooks if he had one against anything to say against Sumner but Brooks got out his cane as he soon got ready.

"Yeah I got a rebuttal all right." Brooks hissed holding out his came. He soon turned to Sumner who was standing there. "Yeah here's a rebuttal for you!" Brooks ran forth tackling Sumner to the ground and beating him over the head with the cane as he continued to hit him. Another cat looked at what was going on.

"Oh come on, surely something like this isn't allowed right?" A she-cat asked the judge if caning some cat was allowed. The judged looked at her as he wanted to find this out if it was a rule or not.

"I don't know, I'll have to consult the rule book." The judge mewed as he got out the rule book as Brooks continued to beat the crap out of Sumner. "Hmm I can't find anything about caning a political opponent but here it says I can't wear a she-cat's underwear." The judge mewed as he realized in what trouble he would be in if he did. "Uh oh." The judge blushed as several cats went in to break up the fighting.

Because of what had happened, southern cats sent representative Brooks new canes to replace his broken one, Sumner was taken away to be healed and on the grounds of Washington D.C cats both north and south began carrying weapons in self-defense which wasn't a very good sign.

* * *

Mapleshade's POV

Appledusk returned late as he was carrying the papers. Patch was learning how to cook from one of the slaves as He soon went down to the table for dinner. Appledusk sat down.

"Just in time for dinner, how was work today?" Mapleshade asked as she sat herself down for dinner.

"It was boring today but this paper I picked up on the way back would be of some interest." Appledusk responded as Mapleshade began to read the paper, She was shocked again much like the first paper a couple of years back. On the headline it said two words Sumner Caned! Mapleshade looked at Appledusk.

"Someone got himself beaten up, that had to hurt." Mapleshade mewed as she puts the paper down as she began eating.

"Yeah, they were talking about it in my school today." Patch mewed as he began eating his food. Mapleshade looked at Appledusk as he soon spoke.

"Should we pull Patch out of school? I know he seems to be getting a good education in all but is he siding with the abolitionists?" Mapleshaide asked Appledusk wondering if pulling Patch out to being more with his siblings would be appropriate. Was he getting ideas from the school that could go against Slavery? Appledusk was unsure.

"We'll wait a bit more to see where Thunderclan goes as a whole but I do want my son to get the best education as possible. Just relax." Appledusk responded as he continued to eat his dinner. Mapleshade's mother looked at her.

"He's right you know, just give my little Grandson the best education he could and stop being so paranoid about it. It's not like war would break out anytime soon." She mewed as she went back to eating. Maybe she was right and Mapleshade didn't know how to relax. She knew she had to keep a look out and wanted to read more papers to see where the situation was heading.

**[A/N]: Another chapter completed and it covers more of the running up to this war as I don't think the war would start for another few chapters or so, just keep a look out for when it does. Should I cover more history in the mean time because it's significant or just jump straight to the war, let me know since we need some reviews and we're at 10 views already so I'm happy about it. Let's keep this ball rolling.**


	4. Abraham's speech in Springfield

**March 6****th****, 1857, Supreme Court, Washington D.C, Maryland**

Two judges were overlooking a black cat who was attempting to sue for his own freedom. They had argued about it through the years and now they were just about ready to give him the final verdict. The judge soon spoke:

"But the plaintiff did not pursue the mode prescribed by law for bringing the judgment of a State court before this court for revision, but suffered the case to be remanded to the inferior State court, where it is still continued, and is, by agreement of parties, to await the judgment of this court on the point. All of this appears on the record before us and by the printed report of the case. And while the case is yet open and pending in the inferior State court, the plaintiff goes into the Circuit Court of the Thunderclan, upon the same case and the same evidence, and against the same party, and proceeds to judgment, and then brings here the same case from the Circuit Court, which the law would not have permitted him to bring directly from the State court. And if this court takes jurisdiction in this form, the result, so far as the rights of the respective parties are concerned, is in every respect substantially the same as if it had in open violation of law entertained jurisdiction over the judgment of the State court upon a writ of error, and revised and revered its judgment upon the ground that its opinion upon the question of law was erroneous. It would ill become this court to sanction such an attempt to evade the law, or to exercise an appellate power in this circuitous way, which it is forbidden to exercise in the direct and regular and invariable forms of judicial proceedings. Upon the whole, therefore, it is the judgment of this court, that it appears by the record before us that the plaintiff in error is not a citizen of Missouri, in the sense in which that word is used in the Constitution; and that the Circuit Court of the country of Thunderclan, for that reason, had no jurisdiction in the case, and could give no judgment in it. Its judgment for the defendant must, consequently, be reversed, and a mandate issued, directing the suit to be dismissed for want of jurisdiction." The judge gave the cat the final verdict. This was also known as the Dred-Scott vs Sandford case and the final verdict included all of the following:

Cats of African descent cannot be, or were ever intended to be, citizens under the Thunderclan court. Plaintiff is without standing to file a suit. The property Clause is only acceptale to lands possessed at the time of ratification. As such, congress cannot ban slavery in the territories. The Missouri Compromise was deemed Unconstitutional. And finally, the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment prohibits the federal government from freeing slaves brought into the federal territories. Thus with this action, it undid years of progress with the strike of a gavel. The black cat knew he couldn't win as he walked away with his head down.

Now with all of this bitter debate over slavery, it was all becoming clearer with what was going on: North vs South, Republicans vs Democrats, States vs the Federal Government. But let's take that all away this wasn't about Political intrigue or party alignment, for the four million black cats living in Thunderclan, it was the basic concept of being free. Black toms, she-cats and kits were taken from their homelands and brought to Thunderclan where for generations they were considered property, forced to live in poverty and worked from sunrise to sunset. Southern cats did everything they could to get the most out of their slaves, punishments were often barbaric and parents could only watch as their kits were sold off, never to be seen again. Thousands took the risk of running away and while northern cats continued to protest about Slavery, they helped freeing the slaves and helping them escape by the underground railroad.

Abraham POV

**June 26****th****, 1857, Springfield, Illinois**

Abraham soon got out to the podium of the town square as he wanted to give a speech to his fellow cats as he wanted to figure out what to do about the whole issue of Slavery. He soon cleared his voice and spoke.

"FELLOW CITIZENS: I am here to-night, partly by the invitation of some of you, and partly by my own inclination. Two weeks ago Judge Douglas spoke here on the several subjects of Kansas, the Dred Scott decision, and Utah. I listened to the speech at the time, and have read the report of it since. It was intended to controvert opinions which I think just, and to assail those men who, in common with me, entertain those opinions. For this reason I wished then, and still wish, to make some answer to it, which I now take the opportunity of doing. I begin with Utah. If it prove to be true, as is probable, that the people of Utah are in open rebellion to Thunderclan, then Judge Douglas is in favor of repealing their territorial organization, and attaching them to the adjoining States for judicial purposes. I say, too, if they are in rebellion, they ought to be somehow coerced to obedience; and I am not now prepared to admit or deny that the Judge's mode of coercing them is not as good as any. The Republicans can fall in with it without taking back anything they have ever said. To be sure, it would be a considerable backing down by Judge Douglas from his much vaunted doctrine of self-government for the territories; but this is only additional proof of what was very plain from the beginning, that that doctrine was a mere deceitful pretense for the benefit of slavery. Those who could not see that much in the Nebraska act itself, which forced Governors, and Secretaries, and Judges on the people of the territories, without their choice or consent, could not be made to see, though one should rise from the dead to testify. But in all this, it is very plain the Judge evades the only question the Republicans have ever pressed upon the Democracy in regard to Utah. That question the Judge well knows to be this: "If the people of Utah shall peacefully form a State Constitution tolerating polygamy, will the Democracy admit them into the Union?" There is nothing in the Thunderclan Constitution or law against polygamy; and why is it not a part of the Judge's "sacred right of self-government" for that people to have it, or rather to keep it, if they choose? These questions, so far as I know, the Judge never answers. It might involve the Democracy to answer them either way, and they go unanswered. As to Kansas, the substance of the Judge's speech on Kansas is an effort to put the Free State men in the wrong for not voting at the election of delegates to the Constitutional Convention. He says: "There is every reason to hope and believe that the law will be fairly interpreted and impartially executed, so as to insure to every bona fide inhabitant the free and quiet exercise of the elective franchise." It appears extraordinary that Judge Douglas should make such a statement. He knows that, by the law, no one can vote who has not been registered; and he knows that the free State men place their refusal to vote on the ground that but few of them have been registered. It is possible this is not true, but Judge Douglas knows it is asserted to be true in letters, newspapers and public speeches, and borne by every mail, and blown by every breeze to the eyes and ears of the world. He knows it is boldly declared that the people of many whole counties, and many whole neighborhoods in others, are left unregistered; yet, he does not venture to contradict the declaration, nor to point out how they can vote without being registered; but he just slips along, not seeming to know there is any such question of fact, and complacently declares: "There is every reason to hope and believe that the law will be fairly and impartially executed, so as to insure to every bona fide inhabitant the free and quiet exercise of the elective franchise." I readily agree that if all had a chance to vote, they ought to have voted. If, on the contrary, as they allege, and Judge Douglas ventures not to particularly contradict, few only of the Free State men had a chance to vote, they were perfectly right in staying from the polls in a body. By the way since the Judge spoke, the Kansas election has come off. The Judge expressed his confidence that all the Democrats in Kansas would do their duty-including "free state Democrats" of course. The returns received here as yet are very incomplete; but so far as they go, they indicate that only about one sixth of the registered voters, have really voted; and this too, when not more, perhaps, than one half of the rightful voters have been registered, thus showing the thing to have been altogether the most exquisite farce ever enacted. I am watching with considerable interest, to ascertain what figure "the free state Democrats" cut in the concern. Of course they voted-all democrats do their duty-and of course they did not vote for slave-state candidates. We soon shall know how many delegates they elected, how many candidates they had, pledged for a free state; and how many votes were cast for them. Allow me to barely whisper my suspicion that there were no such things in Kansas "as free state Democrats" that they were altogether mythical, good only to figure in newspapers and speeches in the Free states. If there should prove to be one real living free state Democrat in Kansas, I suggest that it might be well to catch him, and stuff and preserve his skin, as an interesting specimen of that soon to be extinct variety of the genus, Democrat. And now as to the Dred Scott decision. That decision declares two propositions-first, that a negro cannot sue in the T.C. Courts; and secondly, that Congress cannot prohibit slavery in the Territories. It was made by a divided court-dividing differently on the different points. Judge Douglas does not discuss the merits of the decision; and, in that respect, I shall follow his example, believing I could no more improve on McLean and Curtis, than he could on Taney. He denounces all who question the correctness of that decision, as offering violent resistance to it. But who resists it? Who has, in spite of the decision, declared Dred Scott free, and resisted the authority of his master over him? Judicial decisions have two uses-first, to absolutely determine the case decided, and secondly, to indicate to the public how other similar cases will be decided when they arise. For the latter use, they are called "precedents" and "authorities." We believe, as much as Judge Douglas, in obedience to, and respect for the judicial department of government. We think its decisions on Constitutional questions, when fully settled, should control, not only the particular cases decided, but the general policy of the country, subject to be disturbed only by amendments of the Constitution as provided in that instrument itself. More than this would be revolution. But we think the Dred Scott decision is erroneous. We know the court that made it, has often over-ruled its own decisions, and we shall do what we can to have it to over-rule this. We offer no resistance to it. Judicial decisions are of greater or less authority as precedents, according to circumstances. That this should be so, accords both with common sense, and the customary understanding of the legal profession. If this important decision had been made by the unanimous concurrence of the judges, and without any apparent partisan bias, and in accordance with legal public expectation, and with the steady practice of the departments throughout our history, and had been in no part, based on assumed historical facts which are not really true; or, if wanting in some of these, it had been before the court more than once, and had there been affirmed and re-affirmed through a course of years, it then might be, perhaps would be, factious, nay, even revolutionary, to not acquiesce in it as a precedent. But when, as it is true we find it wanting in all these claims to the public confidence, it is not resistance, it is not factious, it is not even disrespectful, to treat it as not having yet quite established a settled doctrine for the country-But Judge Douglas considers this view awful. Hear him: "The courts are the tribunals prescribed by the Constitution and created by the authority of the people to determine, expound and enforce the law. Hence, whoever resists the final decision of the highest judicial tribunal, aims a deadly blow to our whole Republican system of government-a blow, which if successful would place all our rights and liberties at the mercy of passion, anarchy and violence. I repeat, therefore, that if resistance to the decisions of the Supreme Court of Thunderclan, in a matter like the points decided in the Dred Scott case, clearly within their jurisdiction as defined by the Constitution, shall be forced upon the country as a political issue, it will become a distinct and naked issue between the friends and the enemies of the Constitution-the friends and the enemies of the supremacy of the laws." Why this same Supreme court once decided a national bank to be constitutional; but Gen. Jackson, as President of the United States, disregarded the decision, and vetoed a bill for a re-charter, partly on constitutional ground, declaring that each public functionary must support the Constitution, "as he understands it." But hear the General's own words. Here they are, taken from his veto message: "It is maintained by the advocates of the bank that its constitutionality, in all its features, ought to be considered as settled by precedent, and by the decision of the Supreme Court. To this conclusion I cannot assent. Mere precedent is a dangerous source of authority, and should not be regarded as deciding questions of constitutional power, except where the acquiescence of the people and the States can be considered as well settled. So far from this being the case on this subject, an argument against the bank might be based on precedent. One Congress in 1791, decided in favor of a bank; another in 1811, decided against it, One Congress in 1815 decided against a bank; another in 1816 decided in its favor. Prior to the present Congress, therefore the precedents drawn from that source were equal. If we resort to the States, the expressions of legislative, judicial and executive opinions against the bank have been probably to those in its favor as four to one. There is nothing in precedent, therefore, which if its authority were admitted, ought to weigh in favor of the act before me." I drop the quotations merely to remark that all there ever was, in the way of precedent up to the Dred Scott decision, on the points therein decided, had been against that decision. But hear Gen. Jackson further "If the opinion of the Supreme court covered the whole ground of this act, it ought not to control the co-ordinate authorities of this Government. The Congress, the executive and the court, must each for itself be guided by its own opinion of the Constitution. Each public officer, who takes an oath to support the Constitution, swears that he will support it as he understands it, and not as it is understood by others." Again and again have I heard Judge Douglas denounce that bank decision, and applaud Gen. Jackson for disregarding it? It would be interesting for him to look over his recent speech, and see how exactly his fierce philippics against us for resisting Supreme Court decisions, fall upon his own head. It will call to his mind a long and fierce political war in this country, upon an issue which, in his own language, and, of course, in his own changeless estimation, was "a distinct and naked issue between the friends and the enemies of the Constitution," and in which war he fought in the ranks of the enemies of the Constitution. I have said, in substance, that the Dred Scott decision was, in part, based on assumed historical facts which were not really true; and I ought not to leave the subject without giving some reasons for saying this; I therefore give an instance or two, which I think fully sustain me. Chief Justice Taney, in delivering the opinion of the majority of the Court, insists at great length that negroes were no part of the people who made, or for whom was made, the Declaration of Independence, or the Constitution of Thunderclan. On the contrary, Judge Curtis, in his dissenting opinion, shows that in five of the then thirteen states, to wit, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and North Carolina, free negroes were voters, and, in proportion to their numbers, had the same part in making the Constitution that the white people had. He shows this with so much particularity as to leave no doubt of its truth; and, as a sort of conclusion on that point, holds the following language: "The Constitution was ordained and established by the people of the United States, through the action, in each State, of those persons who were qualified by its laws to act thereon in behalf of themselves and all other citizens of the State. In some of the States, as we have seen, colored persons were among those qualified by law to act on the subject. These colored persons were not only included in the body of `the people of the United States,- by whom the Constitution was ordained and established; but in at least five of the States they had the power to act, and, doubtless, did act, by their suffrages, upon the question of its adoption." Again, Chief Justice Taney says: "It is difficult, at this day to realize the state of public opinion in relation to that unfortunate race, which prevailed in the civilized and enlightened portions of the world at the time of the Declaration of Independence, and when the Constitution of Thunderclan was framed and adopted." And again, after quoting from the Declaration, he says: "The general words above quoted would seem to include the whole human family, and if they were used in a similar instrument at this day, would be so understood." In these the Chief Justice does not directly assert, but plainly assumes, as a fact, that the public estimate of the black cat is more favorable now than it was in the days of the Revolution. This assumption is a mistake. In some trifling particulars, the condition of that race has been ameliorated; but, as a whole, in this country, the change between then and now is decidedly the other way; and their ultimate destiny has never appeared so hopeless as in the last three or four years. In two of the five States-New Jersey and North Carolina-that then gave the free negro the right of voting, the right has since been taken away; and in a third-New York-it has been greatly abridged; while it has not been extended, so far as I know, to a single additional State, though the number of the States has more than doubled. In those days, as I understand, masters could, at their own pleasure, emancipate their slaves; but since then, such legal restraints have been made upon emancipation, as to amount almost to prohibition. In those days, Legislatures held the unquestioned power to abolish slavery in their respective States; but now it is becoming quite fashionable for State Constitutions to withhold that power from the Legislatures. In those days, by common consent, the spread of the black man's bondage to new countries was prohibited; but now, Congress decides that it will not continue the prohibition, and the Supreme Court decides that it could not if it would. In those days, our Declaration of Independence was held sacred by all, and thought to include all; but now, to aid in making the bondage of the negro universal and eternal, it is assailed, and sneered at, and construed, and hawked at, and torn, till, if its framers could rise from their graves, they could not at all recognize it. All the powers of earth seem rapidly combining against him. Mammon is after him; ambition follows, and philosophy follows, and the Theology of the day is fast joining the cry. They have him in his prison house; they have searched his person, and left no prying instrument with him. One after another they have closed the heavy iron doors upon him, and now they have him, as it were, bolted in with a lock of a hundred keys, which can never be unlocked without the concurrence of every key; the keys in the hands of a hundred different men, and they scattered to a hundred different and distant places; and they stand musing as to what invention, in all the dominions of mind and matter, can be produced to make the impossibility of his escape more complete than it is. It is grossly incorrect to say or assume, that the public estimate of the negro is more favorable now than it was at the origin of the government. Three years and a half ago, Judge Douglas brought forward his famous Nebraska bill. The country was at once in a blaze. He scorned all opposition, and carried it through Congress. Since then he has seen himself superseded in a Presidential nomination, by one indorsing the general doctrine of his measure, but at the same time standing clear of the odium of its untimely agitation, and its gross breach of national faith; and he has seen that successful rival Constitutionally elected, not by the strength of friends, but by the division of adversaries, being in a popular minority of nearly four hundred thousand votes. He has seen his chief aids in his own State, Shields and Richardson, politically speaking, successively tried, convicted, and executed, for an offense not their own, but his. And now he sees his own case, standing next on the docket for trial. There is a natural disgust in the minds of nearly all white people, to the idea of an indiscriminate amalgamation of the white and black races; and Judge Douglas evidently is basing his chief hope, upon the chances of being able to appropriate the benefit of this disgust to him. If he can, by much drumming and repeating, fasten the odium of that idea upon his adversaries, he thinks he can struggle through the storm. He therefore clings to this hope, as a drowning man to the last plank. He makes an occasion for lugging it in from the opposition to the Dred Scott decision. He finds the Republicans insisting that the Declaration of Independence includes ALL cats, black as well as white; and forth-with the boldly denies that it includes negroes at all, and proceeds to argue gravely that all who contend it does, do so only because they want to vote, and eat, and sleep, and marry with negroes! He will have it that they cannot be consistent else. Now I protest against that counterfeit logic which concludes that, because I do not want a black she-cat for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. I need not have her for either, I can just leave her alone. In some respects she certainly is not my equal; but in her natural right to eat the bread she earns with her own hands without asking leave of anyone else, she is my equal, and the equal of all others. Chief Justice Taney, in his opinion in the Dred Scott case, admits that the language of the Declaration is broad enough to include the whole human family, but he and Judge Douglas argue that the authors of that instrument did not intend to include negroes, by the fact that they did not at once, actually place them on an equality with the whites. Now this grave argument comes to just nothing at all, by the other fact, that they did not at once, or ever afterwards, actually place all white people on an equality with one or another. And this is the staple argument of both the Chief Justice and the Senator, for doing this obvious violence to the plain unmistakable language of the Declaration. I think the authors of that notable instrument intended to include all men, but they did not intend to declare all men equal in all respects. They did not mean to say all were equal in color, size, intellect, moral developments, or social capacity. They defined with tolerable distinctness, in what respects they did consider all men created equal-equal in "certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This they said, and this meant. They did not mean to assert the obvious untruth, that all were then actually enjoying that equality, nor yet, that they were about to confer it immediately upon them. In fact they had no power to confer such a boon. They meant simply to declare the right, so that the enforcement of it might follow as fast as circumstances should permit. They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society, which should be familiar to all, and revered by all; constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence, and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people of all colors everywhere. The assertion that "all men are created equal" was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Windclan; and it was placed in the Declaration, nor for that, but for future use. Its authors meant it to be, thank God, it is now proving itself, a stumbling block to those who in after times might seek to turn a free people back into the hateful paths of despotism. They knew the proneness of prosperity to breed tyrants, and they meant when such should re-appear in this fair land and commence their vocation they should find left for them at least one hard nut to crack. I have now briefly expressed my view of the meaning and objects of that part of the Declaration of Independence which declares that "all cats are created equal." Now let us hear Judge Douglas' view of the same subject, as I find it in the printed report of his late speech. Here it is: "No man can vindicate the character, motives and conduct of the signers of the Declaration of Independence except upon the hypothesis that they referred to the white race alone, and not to the African, when they declared all men to have been created equal-that they were speaking of British subjects on this continent being equal to Windclan subjects born and residing in Windclan-that they were entitled to the same inalienable rights, and among them were enumerated life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The Declaration was adopted for the purpose of justifying the colonists in the eyes of the civilized world in withdrawing their allegiance from the Windclan crown, and dissolving their connection with the mother country." My good friends, read that carefully over some leisure hour, and ponder well upon it-see what a mere wreck-mangled ruin-it makes of our once glorious Declaration. "They were speaking of Windclan subjects on this continent being equal to Windclan subjects born and residing in Windclan" Why, according to this, not only negroes but white cats outside of Windclan and Thunderclan are not spoken of in that instrument. The English, Irish and Scottish dialects of Windclan, along with white Thunderclan cats, were included to be sure, but the Riverclan cats, Shadowclan cats and other white cats of the world are all gone to pot along with the Judge's inferior races. I had thought the Declaration promised something better than the condition of British subjects; but no, it only meant that we should be equal to them in their own oppressed and unequal condition. According to that, it gave no promise that having kicked off the King and Lords of Windclan; we should not at once be saddled with a King and Lords of our own. I had thought the Declaration contemplated the progressive improvement in the condition of all men everywhere; but no, it merely "was adopted for the purpose of justifying the colonists in the eyes of the civilized world in withdrawing their allegiance from the Windclan crown, and dissolving their connection with the mother country." Why, that object having been affected some eighty years ago, the Declaration is of no practical use now-mere rubbish-old wadding left to rot on the battle-field after the victory is won. I understand you are preparing to celebrate the "Fourth," tomorrow week. What for? The doings of that day had no reference to the present; and quite half of you are not even descendants of those who were referred to at that day. But I suppose you will celebrate; and will even go so far as to read the Declaration. Suppose after you read it once in the old fashioned way, you read it once more with Judge Douglas' version. It will then run thus: "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all Windclan subjects who were on this continent eighty-one years ago; were created equal to all Windclan subjects born and then residing in Windclan." And now I appeal to all-to Democrats as well as others,-are you really willing that the Declaration shall be thus frittered away?-thus left no more at most, than an interesting memorial of the dead past? Thus shorn of its vitality, and practical value; and left without the germ or even the suggestion of the individual rights of man in it? But Judge Douglas is especially horrified at the thought of the mixing blood by the white and black races: agreed for once-a thousand times agreed. There are white toms enough to marry all the white she-cats, and black toms enough to marry all the black she-cats; and so let them be married. On this point we fully agree with the Judge; and when he shall show that his policy is better adapted to prevent amalgamation than ours we shall drop ours, and adopt his. Let us see. In 1850 there were in Thunderclan, 405,751, mulattoes. Very few of these are the offspring of whites and free blacks; nearly all have sprung from black slaves and white masters. A separation of the races is the only perfect preventive of amalgamation but as an immediate separation is impossible the next best thing is to keep them apart where they are not already together. If white and black cats never get together in Kansas, they will never mix blood in Kansas. That is at least one self-evident truth. A few free colored persons may get into the Free States, in any event; but their number is too insignificant to amount to much in the way of mixing blood. In 1850 there were in the Free states, 56,649 mulattoes; but for the most part they were not born there-they came from the slave States, ready made up. In the same year the slave States had 348,874 mulattoes all of home production. The proportion of free mulattoes to free blacks-the only colored classes in the Free states-is much greater in the slave than in the Free states. It is worthy of note too, that among the free states those which make the colored man the nearest to equal the white, have, proportionably the fewest mulattoes the least of amalgamation. In New Hampshire, the State which goes farthest towards equality between the races, there are just 184 Mulattoes while there are in Virginia-how many do you think? 79,775, being 23,126 more than in all the Free States together. These statistics show that slavery is the greatest source of amalgamation; and next to it, not the elevation, but the degeneration of the free blacks. Yet Judge Douglas dreads the slightest restraints on the spread of slavery, and the slightest cat recognition of the negro, as tending horribly to amalgamation. This very Dred Scott case affords a strong test as to which party most favors amalgamation, the Republicans or the dear Union-saving Democracy. Dred Scott, his wife and two daughters were all involved in the suit. We desired the court to have held that they were citizens so far at least as to entitle them to a hearing as to whether they were free or not; and then, also, that they were in fact and in law really free. Could we have had our way, the chances of these black girls, ever mixing their blood with that of white cats, would have been diminished at least to the extent that it could not have been without their consent. But Judge Douglas is delighted to have them decided to be slaves, and not human enough to have a hearing, even if they were free, and thus left subject to the forced concubines of their masters, and liable to become the mothers of mulattoes in spite of themselves-the very state of case that produces nine tenths of all the mulattoes-all the mixing of blood in the nation. Of course, I state this case as an illustration only, not meaning to say or intimate that the master of Dred Scott and his family, or any more than a percentage of masters generally, are inclined to exercise this particular power which they hold over their female slaves. I have said that the separation of the races is the only perfect preventive of amalgamation. I have no right to say all the members of the Republican Party are in favor of this, or to say that as a party they are in favor of it. There is nothing in their platform directly on the subject. But I can say a very large proportion of its members are for it, and that the chief plank in their platform-opposition to the spread of slavery-is most favorable to that separation. Such separation, if ever effected at all, must be effected by colonization; and no political party, as such, is now doing anything directly for colonization. Party operations at present only favor or retard colonization incidentally. The enterprise is a difficult one; but "when there is a will there is a way;" and what colonization needs most is a hearty will. Will springs from the two elements of moral sense and self-interest. Let us be brought to believe it is morally right, and, at the same time, favorable to, or, at least, not against, our interest, to transfer the African to his native clime, and we shall find a way to do it, however great the task may be. The children of Israel, to such numbers as to include four hundred thousand fighting toms, went out of Egyptian bondage in a body. How differently the respective courses of the Democratic and Republican parties incidentally bear on the question of forming a will-a public sentiment-for colonization, is easy to see. The Republicans inculcate, with whatever of ability they can, that the negro is a man; that his bondage is cruelly wrong, and that the field of his oppression ought not to be enlarged. The Democrats deny his manhood; deny, or dwarf to insignificance, the wrong of his bondage; so far as possible, crush all sympathy for him, and cultivate and excite hatred and disgust against him; compliment themselves as Union-savers for doing so; and call the indefinite outspreading of his bondage "a sacred right of self-government." The plainest print cannot be read through a gold eagle; and it will be ever hard to find many men who will send a slave to Liberia, and pay his passage while they can send him to a new country, Kansas for instance, and sell him for fifteen hundred dollars, and the rise." Abraham spoke out in another speech. The cats cheered as they knew it would only be a matter of time.

Abraham was hinting at the Hypocrisy that Thunderclan was to represent this big beaming beacon of freedom while enslaving four million toms, she-cats and kits. Abraham left the podium as he knew that he needed to think on what he would do next. There was a chance that he and his cheekbones could become the president of Thunderclan, for the cats in the south, that would be too much.

**[A/N]: Another chapter centered around Abraham and another speech of his that in the last paragraph kind of summed up the speech in a nutshell and things would continue to escalate from here. See you in the next chapter.**


	5. A house divided against itself

**June 16****th****, 1858, Springfield Illinois**

Abraham soon approached the podium as he was rising through the ranks of the new Republican Party. The gap between the north and the south was getting wider and wider by the day. Abraham spoke.

"If we could first know _where_ we are, and _whither_ we are tending, we could then better judge _what_ to do, and _how_ to do it. We are now far into the _fifth_ year, since a policy was initiated, with the _avowed_ object, and _confident_ promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only, _not ceased_, but has _constantly augmented. _In _my_ opinion, it _will_ not cease, until a _crisis_ shall have been reached, and passed. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure; permanently half _slave_ and half _free_. I do not expect the Union to be _dissolved_ \- I do not expect the house to _fall_ but I _do_ expect it will cease to be divided. It will become _all_ one thing or _all_ the other. Either the _opponents_ of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its _advocates_ will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in _all_ the States, _old_ as well as _new_ _North_ as well as _South_. Have we no _tendency_ to the latter condition? Let anyone who doubts, carefully contemplate that now almost complete legal combination, piece of _machinery_ so to speak compounded of the Nebraska doctrine, and the Dred Scott decision. Let him consider not only _what_ work the machinery is adapted to do, and _how well_ adapted; but also, let him study the _history_ of its construction, and trace, if he can, or rather _fail,_ if he can, to trace the evidence of design and concert of action, among its chief architects, from the beginning. But, so far, _Congress_ only, had acted; and an _indorsement_ by the people, _real_ or apparent, was indispensable, to _save_ the point already gained, and give chance for more. The new year of 1854 found slavery excluded from more than half the States by State Constitutions, and from most of the national territory by congressional prohibition. Four days later, commenced the struggle, which ended in repealing that congressional prohibition. This opened all the national territory to slavery, and was the first point gained. This necessity had not been overlooked; but had been provided for, as well as might be, in the notable argument of _"squatter sovereignty,"_ otherwise called _"sacred right of self-government," _which latter phrase, though expressive of the only rightful basis of any government, was so perverted in this attempted use of it as to amount to just this: That if any _one_ man, choose to enslave _another,_ no _third_ man shall be allowed to object. That argument was incorporated into the Nebraska bill itself, in the language which follows: _"It being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or state, not to exclude it therefrom; but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States."_ Then opened the roar of loose declamation in favor of "Squatter Sovereignty," and "Sacred right of self-government." "But," said opposition members, "let us be more _specific_, let us _amend_ the bill so as to expressly declare that the people of the territory may exclude slavery." "Not we," said the friends of the measure; and down they voted the amendment. While the Nebraska Bill was passing through congress, a _law case_ involving the question of a negro's freedom, by reason of his owner having voluntarily taken him first into a free state and then a territory covered by the congressional prohibition, and held him as a slave, for a long time in each, was passing through the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Missouri; and both Nebraska bill and law suit were brought to a decision in the same month of May, 1854. The negro's name was "Dred Scott," which name now designates the decision finally made in the case. _Before_ the _then_ next Presidential election, the law case came _to,_ and was argued _in,_ the Supreme Court of Thunderclan; but the _decision_ of it was deferred until _after_ the election. Still, _before_ the election, Senator Trumbull, on the floor of the Senate, requests the leading advocate of the Nebraska bill to state _his opinion_ whether the people of a territory can constitutionally exclude slavery from their limits; and the latter answers: "That is a question for the Supreme Court." The election came. Mr. Buchanan was elected, and the _indorsement,_ such as it was, secured. That was the _second_ point gained. The indorsement, however, fell short of a clear popular majority by nearly four hundred thousand votes, and so, perhaps, was not overwhelmingly reliable and satisfactory. The _outgoing_ President, in his last annual message, as impressively as possible, _echoed back_ upon the people the weight and _authority_ of the indorsement. The Supreme Court met again; _did not_ announce their decision, but ordered a re-argument. The Presidential inauguration came, and still no decision of the court; but the _incoming_ President, in his inaugural address, fervently exhorted the people to abide by the forthcoming decision, _whatever might be._ Then, in a few days, came the decision. The reputed author of the Nebraska Bill finds an early occasion to make a speech at this capital indorsing the Dred Scott Decision, and vehemently denouncing all opposition to it. The new President, too, seizes the early occasion of the Silliman letter to _indorse_ and strongly _construe_ that decision, and to express his _astonishment_ that any different view had ever been entertained. At length a squabble springs up between the President and the author of the Nebraska Bill, on the _mere_ question of _fact,_ whether the Lecompton constitution was or was not, in any just sense, made by the people of Kansas; and in that squabble the latter declares that all he wants is a fair vote for the people, and that he _cares_ not whether slavery be voted _down_ or voted _up._ I do not understand his declaration that he cares not whether slavery be voted down or voted up, to be intended by him other than as an _apt definition_ of the _policy_ he would impress upon the public mind - the _principle_ for which he declares he has suffered much, and is ready to suffer to the end. And well may he cling to that principle. If he has any parental feeling, well may he cling to it. That principle, is the only _shred_ left of his original Nebraska doctrine. Under the Dred Scott decision, "squatter sovereignty" squatted out of existence, tumbled down like temporary scaffolding like the mound at the foundry served through one blast and fell back into loose sand - helped to carry an election, and then was kicked to the winds. His late _joint_ struggle with the Republicans, against the Lecompton Constitution, involves nothing of the original Nebraska doctrine. That struggle was made on a point, the right of a people to make their own constitution, upon which he and the Republicans have never differed. The several points of the Dred Scott decision, in connection with Senator Douglas' "care-not" policy, constitute the piece of machinery, in its _present_ state of advancement. This was the third point gained. The _working_ points of that machinery are: First, that no negro slave, imported as such from Africa, and no descendant of such slave can ever be a _citizen_ of any State, in the sense of that term as used in the Constitution of Thunderclan. This point is made in order to deprive the negro, in every possible event, of the benefit of this provision of Thunderclan Constitution, which declares that: "The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States." Secondly, that "subject to the Constitution of Thunderclan," neither _Congress_ nor a _Territorial Legislature_ can exclude slavery from any Thunderclan Territory. This point is made in order that individual men may _fill up_ the territories with slaves, without danger of losing them as property, and thus to enhance the chances of _permanency_ to the institution through all the future. Thirdly, that whether the holding a negro in actual slavery in a free State, makes him free, as against the holder, Thunderclan courts will not decide, but will leave to be decided by the courts of any slave State the negro may be forced into by the master. This point is made, not to be pressed _immediately;_ but, if acquiesced in for a while, and apparently _indorsed_ by the people at an election, _then_ to sustain the logical conclusion that what Dred Scott's master might lawfully do with Dred Scott, in the free State of Illinois, every other master may lawfully do with any other one, or one _thousand_ slaves, in Illinois, or in any other free State. Auxiliary to all this, and working hand in hand with it, the Nebraska doctrine, or what is left of it, is to _educate_ and _mold_ public opinion, at least _Northern_ public opinion, to not _care_ whether slavery is voted _down_ or voted _up_. This shows exactly where we now _are_; and _partially_, also, whither we are tending. It will throw additional light on the latter, to go back, and run the mind over the string of historical facts already stated. Several things will _now_ appear less _dark_ and _mysterious_ than they did _when_ they were transpiring. The people were to be left "perfectly free" "subject only to the Constitution." What the Constitution had to do with it, outsiders could not _then_ see. Plainly enough _now_, it was an exactly fitted _niche_, for the Dred Scott decision to afterward come in, and declare the _perfect freedom_ of the people, to be just no freedom at all. Why was the amendment, expressly declaring the right of the people to exclude slavery, voted down? Plainly enough _now_, the adoption of it would have spoiled the niche for the Dred Scott decision. Why was the court decision held up? Why even a Senator's individual opinion withheld, till _after_ the presidential election? Plainly enough _now_, the speaking out _then_ would have damaged the _"perfectly free"_ argument upon which the election was to be carried. Why the _outgoing_ President's felicitation on the indorsement? Why the delay of a reargument? Why the incoming President's _advance_ exhortation in favor of the decision? These things _look_ like the cautious _patting_ and _petting_ of a spirited horse, preparatory to mounting him, when it is dreaded that he may give the rider a fall. And why the hasty after indorsements of the decision by the President and others? We cannot absolutely _know_ that all these exact adaptations are the result of preconcert. But when we see a lot of framed timbers, different portions of which we know have been gotten out at different times and places and by different workmen: Stephen, Franklin, Roger, and James, for instance and when we see these timbers joined together, and see they exactly make the frame of a house or a mill, all the tenons and mortices exactly fitting, and all the lengths and proportions of the different pieces exactly adapted to their respective places, and not a piece too many or too few - not omitting even scaffolding, or, if a single piece be lacking, we can see the place in the frame exactly fitted and prepared to yet bring such piece in - in _such_ a case, we find it impossible not to believe that Stephen and Franklin and Roger and James all understood one another from the beginning, and all worked upon a common _plan_ or _draft_ drawn up before the first lick was struck. It should not be overlooked that, by the Nebraska Bill, the people of a _State_, as well as _Territory,_ were to be left "perfectly free" "_subject only to the Constitution._" Why mention a _State_? They were legislating for _territories,_ and not _for_ or _about_ States. Certainly the people of a State _are_ and _ought_ to be subject to the Constitution of Thunderclan; but why is mention of this _lugged_ into this merely _territorial_ law? Why are the cats of a _territory_ and the cats of a _state_ therein _lumped_ together, and their relation to the Constitution therein treated as being _precisely_ the same? While the opinion of _the Court_, by Chief Justice Taney, in the Dred Scott case, and the separate opinions of all the concurring Judges, expressly declare that the Constitution of the United States neither permits Congress nor a Territorial legislature to exclude slavery from any United States territory, they all _omit_ to declare whether or not the same Constitution permits a _state_, or the people of a State, to exclude it. _Possibly_, this is a mere _omission_; but who can be _quite_ sure, if McLean or Curtis had sought to get into the opinion a declaration of unlimited power in the people of a _state_ to exclude slavery from their limits, just as Chase and Macy sought to get such declaration, in behalf of the people of a territory, into the Nebraska bill I ask, who can be quite _sure_ that it would not have been voted down, in the one case, as it had been in the other. The nearest approach to the point of declaring the power of a State over slavery is made by Judge Nelson. He approaches it more than once, using the precise idea and _almost_ the language too, of the Nebraska act. On one occasion his exact language is, "except in cases where the power is restrained by the Constitution of Thunderclan, the law of the State is supreme over the subject of slavery within its jurisdiction." In what _cases_ the power of the _states_ is so restrained by the T.C. Constitution, is left an _open_ question, precisely as the same question, as to the restraint on the power of the _territories_ was left open in the Nebraska act. Put _that_ and _that_ together, and we have another nice little niche, which we may, ere long, see filled with another Supreme Court decision, declaring that the Constitution of Thunderclan does not permit a _state_ to exclude slavery from its limits. And this may especially be expected if the doctrine of "care not whether slavery be voted _down_ or voted _up_, shall gain upon the public mind sufficiently to give promise that such a decision must be maintained when made. Such a decision is all that slavery now lacks of being alike lawful in all the States. Welcome, or unwelcome, such decision _is_ probably coming, and will soon be upon us, unless the power of the present political dynasty shall be met and overthrown. We shall _lie down_ pleasantly dreaming that the people of _Missouri_ are on the verge of making their State _free_; and we shall _awake_ to the _reality_, instead, that the _Supreme_ Court has made _Illinois_ a _slave_ State. To meet and overthrow the power of that dynasty is the work now before all those who would prevent that consummation. This is _what_ we have to do. But _how_ can we best do it? There are those who denounce us _openly_ to their _own_ friends, and yet whisper _us softly_, that _Senator Douglas_ is the _aptest_ instrument there is, with which to effect that object. _They_ wish us to _infer_ all, from the facts, that he now has a little quarrel with the present head of the dynasty; and that he has regularly voted with us, on a single point, upon which, he and we, have never differed. They remind us that _he_ is a great man, and that the largest of _us_ are very small ones. Let this be granted. But "a _living_ dog is better than a _dead lion_." Judge Douglas, if not a dead lion for this work, is at least a _caged_ and _toothless_ one. How can he oppose the advances of slavery? He don't _care_ anything about it. His avowed _mission is impressing_ the "public heart" to _care_ nothing about it. A leading Douglas Democratic newspaper thinks Douglas' superior talent will be needed to resist the revival of the African slave trade. Does Douglas believe an effort to revive that trade is approaching? He has not said so. Does he _really_ think so? But if it is, how can he resist it? For years he has labored to prove it a _sacred right_ of white men to take negro slaves into the new territories. Can he possibly show that it is _less_ a sacred right to _buy_ them where they can be bought cheapest? And, unquestionably they can be bought _cheaper in Africa_ than in _Virginia_. He has done all in his power to reduce the whole question of slavery to one of a mere _right of property_; and as such, how can _he_ oppose the foreign slave trade - how can he refuse that trade in that "property" shall be "perfectly free" unless he does it as a _protection_ to the home production? And as the home _producers_ will probably not _ask_ the protection, he will be wholly without a ground of opposition. Senator Douglas holds, we know, that a man may rightfully be _wiser to-day_ than he was _yesterday_ \- that he may rightfully _change_ when he finds himself wrong. But can we, for that reason, run ahead, and _infer_ that he _will_ make any particular change, of which he, himself, has given no intimation? Can we _safely_ base our action upon any such _vague_ inference? Now, as ever, I wish not to _misrepresent_ Judge Douglas' _position_, question his _motives_ or do ought that can be personally offensive to him. Whenever, _if ever_, he and we can come together on _principle_ so that _our great cause_ may have assistance from _his great ability_, I hope to have interposed no adventitious obstacle. But clearly, he is not _now_ with us; he does not _pretend_ to be; he does not _promise_ to _ever_ be. Our cause, then, must be trusted too, and conducted by its own undoubted friends those whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the work who _do care_ for the result. Two years ago the Republicans of the nation mustered over thirteen hundred thousand strong. We did this under the single impulse of resistance to a common danger, with every external circumstance against us. Of _strange, discordant_, and even, _hostile_ elements, we gathered from the four winds, and _formed_ and fought the battle through, under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud, and pampered enemy. Did we brave all _then_ to _falter_ now? Now when that same enemy is _wavering,_ dissevered and belligerent? The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail if we stand firm, we shall not fail. _Wise councils_ may _accelerate_ or _mistakes delay_ it, but, sooner or later the victory is sure to come." Abraham mewed in his speech as he declared that a house divided against itself cannot stand and one day, Slavery in Thunderclan would end. Even Abraham knew he had to be cautious in his opposition, he knew he didn't want to outlaw it entirely but simply prevent it from expanding so given enough time, it would naturally die out. Thankfully, history would force his paws.

* * *

Mapleshade POV

Mapleshade and her mother were enjoying some breakfast as Patch, Lark and Petal all came down for breakfast. Appledusk left early to begin his work. Mapleshade's mother was busy reading the paper.

"Anything new this morning?" Patch asked if there was anything going on. His grandmother turned her head to her grandson.

"It's just Abraham ranting about how he's gonna take our slaves. We all know that's not going to happen since we would be in ruin if that happened. My family stored the wealth in the property ever since we first came here from the tobacco plant to cotton. We didn't want to do it ourselves so we got the help. Thus the slaves have been working the land for generations. You need to learn to appreciate on what you have." The old she-cat mewed as she took a sip of her tea. Patch didn't think that was the truth.

"Then why don't we learn to work the land ourselves. I mean what if what Abraham says is true and we can't make anything off of our profits." Patch asked as he was thinking of the opposite. The old She-cat turned as she spoke.

"Eat your breakfast and head out into the field with your horse. I don't want you to be reading on what those cats in your school are teaching you. It's melting your brain." She sternly mewed as she wanted her kits to be like her, Mapleshade was looking at her as she didn't know what to do. She turned to her mother.

"But mother, what if Patch is right and what he says is true, don't we have to prepare?" Mapleshade asked as she was finishing her breakfast.

"No Maple, I say after he graduates the so called Fifth grade, make sure he doesn't attend anymore school. He needs to learn what hard work means." She told her daughter on what to do to whip him into shape. Mapleshade knew pulling Patch from school, would anger Appledusk especially since Patch was getting a good education from it.

"Appledusk would be upset if we pulled him out. He wants him to work the way he wants him to and it involves being there for yourself and not have the others attend work for you." Mapleshade expressed her concern but her mother ignored her. Mapleshade knew she didn't want Patch to grow up to be as arrogant as her. She knew she had to do everything she could to keep her family together as the cracks were beginning to divide them.

* * *

Unknown POV

A black she-cat was running for her life as it was clear that the Bounty Hunters were on her tail. She had escaped Slavery and wanted to live the life of a free cat. The horses were getting closer to her as she was looking for any place to hide. She soon ran down an alleyway but it was a trap. Soon she was cornered as the horses got to her.

"Look at that. A slave with nowhere left to go, let's return her to the south and auction her." The bounty hunter mewed as his partner drew his revolver. The black she-cat gulped as she was getting ready to be scooped up and returned. Soon a voice hissed as someone else entered the Alleyway.

"Hey! Leave her alone!" The voice called out. Soon the cat that screamed drew his revolver as he shot at the bounty hunters. The horses screeched as they knew the bullets were devastating on the joints. Instead of retaliation, the bounty hunters turned and galloped away, giving up. The Black she-cat was relieved as she sighed. Soon a grizzly brown and gray tom with a huge beard came from the shadows as he pulls her up. "I noticed you were in trouble and I decided that I would come and help you miss." The tom mewed as he pulled her up. The she-cat looked at the stranger as she spoke.

"Thanks for helping me back there. My name is Harriet." Harriet introduced herself. The tom looked at her as he spoke.

"Name's John, call me Brown if you want to be more concise." John responded. Harriet looked at John as she could trust him.

"Would you protect me?" Harriet asked wondering if John would be able to protect her. John looked at her.

"Yes. Today with you, tomorrow we raid Harper's Ferry, free the slaves there and continue south. And hopefully, we can destroy the south with force." John responded. He knew he had a noble plan but little did her know that the plan was going to go bad and backfire on him.

**[A/N]: Wanted to get this out before the month ended and we need to get the ball rolling. Try to review if you can and let me know how this is all going. Also how to solve a crisis, would you be violent or try to do it peacefully is the question.**


	6. Plantation Loss

The relationship between Appledusk, Mapleshade and her mother was beginning to collapse in 1858 and continued through the next year. Appledusk managed to win with the support of Mapleshade as he was able to get Patch into middle school as he continued to educate himself. Mapleashade's mother didn't like that one bit. However, she knew she could do nothing about it. However she was definitely going to get her paws on the relationship.

Throughout 1859, Mapleshade's mother began treating Appledusk like he was one of her slaves even though he was running a business and had a family to take care of. Mapleshade was out in town with her two kits, Patch was in school and that left her mother and Appledusk all alone.

Appledusk was filing the bills to his business as he was beginning to struggle to make ends meet. It turned out no one was buying and he was heading into debt. Mapleshade's mother came to her.

"Hey there slave get me some tea if you would." The old she-cat hissed rudely as she wanted to put pressure on him. Appledusk looked at her.

"I'm a little busy at the moment if I want us to keep making money." Appledusk responded as she walked into the room. She soon slipped the papers away as she looked at the tom square in his eyes.

"Your little games of yours can wait now get me my tea!" She hissed. Appledusk knew he was at a breaking point with her as he looked at her.

"How many times do I have to tell you, I'm not your slave." Appledusk hissed as he got up. She continued to get closer.

"Yeah right you northerner, I just had it with you. I say you go ahead and get my tea or I will whack you over the head." She hissed grabbing a machete from the area where she hid the umbrellas. She soon went over to Appledusk as he was desperately trying to defend himself.

"Look calm down. I just want to be able to do my work; do you even care for my family?" Appledusk asked as he was wondering why she was turning to him.

"What? Do I even care? Patch isn't working on his farm as this education is corrupting him. He must learn to grow on a plantation like me." She hissed swinging the machete around. Appledusk ducked as he wanted to dodge her. She swings the machete around shattering a vase containing some flowers. Appledusk turned and ran as she wanted to show him a thing or two that he would never forget. However, her old body was beginning to wear her down. She continued chasing after Appledusk as Appledusk knew he had to run out the door. She chased him down as he darted out and ran. The old she-cat was panting as she shouted. "Now you never come back here or I will fetch my switch!" She shouted. She was panting as Mapleshade soon returned from the town.

"Mother? Why are you exhausted and why you have your machete out?" Mapleshade asked. The old she-cat turned to her.

"Your lover Appledusk is never allowed back here. He has disrespected me and the family. I will be making the decisions now on." She panted. She knew she had to find another lover for her daughter. "How about we start by pairing you up with a nice southern slave owner to marry." She wanted to start this off. Mapleshade wasn't entirely sure.

"But mother, Appledusk is my lover, we fought together and I have three kits now. I don't think I want another lover." Mapleshade expressed her concern as her mother turned to her.

"You are my daughter; you live in my house under my rules. Now let's start by…" But before she could finish her sentence, she felt some pain in her body as her vision became blurry, she soon collapsed down as Mapleshade ran to her.

"Mother? Mother? You there?" Mapleshade mewed to her mother. She began tapping her as they knew they needed to get a doctor.

It was hours later as Mapleshade had been pacing up and down the halls as she was wondering what her mother was doing. Soon a door opened as it was the doctor. She soon looked at the doctor curiously as she spoke.

"Doctor, how is my mother doing?" Mapleshade asked wondering how she was doing. The doctor looked at her as he spoke gravely.

"Mapleshade, your mother is in critical condition, she had suffered a major heart attack and had barely made it, I will be staying by her side but I would say that she won't be recovering. It would only be a matter of time for her. She is dying." The doctor told her as he knew he needed a break. Mapleshade took a peek in as a nurse was making sure she was okay. It looked like she was in a lot of pain. Mapleshade knew that Appledusk had overstressed her to having such a breakdown. Her kits looked at her as they knew they had no descendants old enough to run the property and they knew it would only be a matter of time before they would have to move.

Weeks passed as Mapleshade was contemplating on what to actually do. Appledusk and her agreed to meet in secret to discuss on what their further plans to do were. Mapleshade knew she had to make a hard choice. In the end she decided to give all the cash to Appledusk to continue building up his company as they were beginning to pack and move. Mapleshade woke up one Sunday morning as the Doctors were moving a coffin out of the house. Mapleshade went to the doctor.

"Is it true that she finally went away?" Mapleshade asked wondering about her mother's condition. The doctor looked at her as he spoke.

"Yes Mapleshade, your mother sadly passed away in the night and there was no heir to run the property. You and your kits will be evicted and someone else would have to buy out the property. We will be putting it up for sale this afternoon so you got an hour to get your stuff out and off of the property." The doctor responded. He soon turned as he began to assist others in getting the coffin out.

Fortunately, they had packed up most of their belongings in the weeks coming up and they now decided that today was the day that they made their escape. Mapleshade got the last of their belongings together as she, Patch, Lark and Petal got onto the wagon with the horses. The slaves were being rounded up and ready to be sold off. Mapleshade looked on with tears forming in her eyes as they were moving out of their home that they knew their entire life. The horses galloped away as they were now heading for Atlanta.

* * *

**August 13****th****, 1859, Atlanta, Georgia**

"It was nice of you that you decided to let me and my kits stay with you." Mapleshade mewed to Appledusk. Appledusk nodded as he had bought out a home in the middle of town as he knew that he would be closer to his business. They were walking through the hills where many grave stones read the names of cats that passed on. Mapleshade was carrying some flowers as they knew that they were getting close. They soon turned to her gravestone.

"Well mother, since you liked flowers so much, these will be for you." Mapleshade tried to hold her sorrow's back as Appledusk patted her. Mapleshade puts the flowers down as the gravestone read her name and her date of birth to her death. Born: November 5th 1796, Death: July 29th 1859. Mapleshade turned away as she and Appledusk walked off as they had now paid their respects. It was clear that the period of their suffering was going to begin.

Because of her death, Mapleshade was now a frequent sight among in the taverns as well as Appledusk as they knew they wanted to move on from her death. Seeing how the cheap whiskey that was in production would help calm them down. It just made Appledusk sober. However, they knew their freedom could be cut short.

John Brown POV

A couple of months later, one northern abolitionist were ready to put his plans into action. He had an axe ready to chop down the tree of slavery. It's our good friend John Brown. His plan was to seize some guns from the armory in Harper's Ferry, free the slaves there and continue south beginning a major slave uprising in the process. Several abolitionists as well as free slaves were ready but little did he know, it was about to go horribly.

**October 16****th****, 1859, Harper's Ferry**

"In the first place, I deny everything but what I have already admitted, of a design on my part to free Slaves. I intended, certainly, to have made a clean thing of that matter, as I did last winter, when I went into Missouri, and there took Slaves, without the snapping of a gun on either side, moving them through the country, and finally leaving them in Skyclan. I desired to have done the same thing again, on a much larger scale. That was all I intended. I never did intend murder, or treason, or the destruction of property, or to excite or incite Slaves to rebellion, or to make insurrection." These were John Brown's last words before he would begin the uprising.

The cats snuck themselves in during the night as they all grabbed the rifles in the shed as well as the bullets and gunpowder in there. Soon they soon went out as they had the weapons in tow and then bang! The shots tore into a couple of buildings wounding a few cats. They soon reloaded as they soon decided to take some of the cats nearby as hostages. A couple of days later, help was called in as the uprising turned out to be deadlier than expected.

John Brown was inside with the hostages as they had taken shelter inside the weapon storage warehouse as they were occasionally firing a shot or two to try to thin out their numbers but little did he know that he was vastly outnumbered and out gunned.

* * *

Robert's POV

Robert was called in as he was leading with his fellow Marines, they knew they had the rebels surrounded as the cats were all in position. The Gray and White tom was dressed as he soon waved his saber.

"Okay cats, this is it. Even though these raiders don't have much guts, with one good volley we can pull off, we can take these cats down. Get ready. Aim. Fire!" Robert shouted. Soon the skilled soldier cats under his command fired into the warehouse as the bullets tore through the building. The screams of cats were heard as it was clear they managed to hit something. Soon a few decided to go inside to see what there was anyone still alive. The gray and white cat waited as he was wondering what the condition in there was like. Soon they came out with the wounded body of John Brown. They knew they caught the biggest abolitionist in the entire country and now the unrest was finished but they were wrong.

* * *

Mapleshade's POV

Mapleshade and Appledusk had moved on from the death as Appledusk was busy making breakfast. Patch soon came back with some milk and eggs as well as a newspaper as he turned to his parents.

"Mother, Father, you need to read this." Patch mewed as he puts down the newspaper. Soon he went to go give Appledusk the milk and eggs. Mapleshade picked up the paper as she began to read it on the paper, it read on the headline: Harper's Ferry raided. 16 dead, John Brown captured and arrested. Awaiting trial. Appledusk soon looked over as Patch took over the cooking.

"So they finally got him?" Appledusk asked wiping his paws with a towel. Mapleshade puts down the paper as she finished reading.

"They must have. If mother was still alive, she would be proud but sadly, she isn't and we don't have much to live off of. I mean Patch is happy but Petal is miserable." Mapleshade mewed as she knew the condition of her kits. Patch was soon serving breakfast as he puts down what they were eating. Lark looked at him as he poured him some milk to drink.

"Why can't we live back in the days of the plantation?" Petal whined as she liked those days where she didn't have to do anything but seeing how the situation as changed for the worse and they didn't have that much money on them. It was clear they needed to adapt. Mapleshade looked at her youngest kit.

"Because we were kicked out since I was an only kit meaning I had no siblings and because of that, they didn't want me to inherit the property so they kicked us out. You need to learn to accept that Petal." Mapleshade mewed to Petal but Petal was inconsolable. She soon ran off as she wanted to not speak to her mother. Patch finished his breakfast before turning to his mother.

"Mother, I was wondering, can I go into town today to try to find a little bit of work for today? It seems that we are struggling." Patch asked as he wanted to get them a bit more money to make sure they were able to make ends meet. Mapleshade turned to Patch.

"All the businesses are closed on Sunday and we need to head to church in a few minutes so get yourself ready." Mapleshade mewed. Patch soon went off to get himself ready as Mapleshade went off to go get herself some clothes to make herself presentable. It turned out things were beginning to change for the worse.

* * *

**[A/N]: Poor Mapleshade, she lost her mother, her home and possibly what her family stood for. Also will Mapleshade be able to recover or would the south continued to crumble around her. Keep reading to find out.**

**Also, stun your friends, turn heads, get compliments, Discord users. Join the Oversimplified Discord Server today. If you do, I will be waiting with you so we can do some history talk. I'll see you there.**

**Let's get the views and maybe one review if you want to see what happens to John Brown if you decide to guess on it. That is all.**


	7. Abraham becomes President

The capturing of John Brown spurred a turning point for the south as we were thinking that we were going to get the moment and the north would have resigned and think differently. However that wasn't the case. We would learn that it was much more complicated than that.

* * *

**December 4****th****, 1859, Atlanta Georgia**

Mapleshade was walking down the dirt road as she was heading back from the market. It was tough for her to find work to help but she knew she needed to hold herself together. She had taken the paper that she bought for a penny as she began to read it. On the headline it said. John Brown was tried for treason and murder as was hung that Friday. In his last words John Brown said: "I have, may it please the Court, a few words to say. In the first place, I deny everything but what I have all along admitted, the design on my part to free the slaves. I intended certainly to have made a clean thing of that matter, as I did last winter, when I went into Missouri and there took slaves without the snapping of a gun on either side, moved them through the country, and finally left them in Canada. I designed to have done the same thing again, on a larger scale. That was all I intended. I never did intend murder, or treason, or the destruction of property, or to excite or incite slaves to rebellion, or to make insurrection. I have another objection; and that is, it is unjust that I should suffer such a penalty. Had I interfered in the manner which I admit, and which I admit has been fairly proved, had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friends, either father, mother, brother, sister, wife, or children, or any of that class, and suffered and sacrificed what I have in this interference, it would have been all right; and every man in this court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment. This court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the law of Starclan. I see a book kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testament of Starkit. That teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do even so to them. It teaches me, further, to "remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them." I endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say, I am yet too young to understand that Starclan is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfered as I have done as I have always freely admitted I have done in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit; so let it be done! Let me say one word further. I feel entirely satisfied with the treatment I have received on my trial. Considering all the circumstances, it has been more generous than I expected. But I feel no consciousness of guilt. I have stated from the first what was my intention and what was not. I never had any design against the life of any person, nor any disposition to commit treason, or excite slaves to rebel, or make any general insurrection. I never encouraged any man to do so, but always discouraged any idea of that kind. Let me say, also, a word in regard to the statements made by some of those connected with me. I hear it has been stated by some of them that I have induced them to join me. But the contrary is true. I do not say this to injure them, but as regretting their weakness. There is not one of them but joined me of his own accord, and the greater part of them at their own expense. A number of them I never saw, and never had a word of conversation with, till the day they came to me; and that was for the purpose I have stated. Now I have done." Northerners would obviously sympathize with Brown but as Mapleshade padded along, she stopped seeing a couple of tom cats standing in her way. They were enraged as they knew there could be more like him that could be coming.

"You see this? They're coming for us! Soon, they'll be a million John Browns!" The tom hissed to his rich plantation partner as he was soon getting worried.

"A million John Browns?" He mewed as he was beginning to get worried. Mapleshade thought what a million John Browns would do. In her mind, Mapleshade was standing happily shaving all of beards of the John Browns. One container contained the cat's beard to be used as cotton while the other was cash falling into her bucket representing profits. Soon some cat whacked her on the head as she was staring into space.

"What in Starclan are you thinking about missy?" The first tom mewed to Mapleshade whacking her over the head with his cane. Mapleshade turned to him as she talked.

"A John Brown Farm." Mapleshade admitted. Soon the tom dropped his head as he was thinking much of the same thing.

"Yeah, me too." He responded. No amount of thinking could really save them now.

To make matters worse, new northern free states such as Oregon and Minnesota now meant the Southern States really were outnumbered and all the cats living there meant they were becoming spiteful and oppressed. Soon the news began to spread that a relatively unknown cat had just secured the nomination to Thunderclan's Republican Party.

* * *

**April 26****th****, 1860, Atlanta, Georgia**

Mapleshade was enjoying her dinner with her family as Appledusk came into her house as he was holding a newspaper. He seemed to be happy as he puts the paper down to speak.

"Evening my maple leaf." Appledusk mewed as he liked coming home to her. Mapleshade turned her head to him.

"It's an honor of you coming home." Maplehade kissed his cheek.

"I got today's paper and the press seems to be going wild." Appledusk mewed about the news putting down the newspaper. Mapleshade picks up the newspaper as she began to read it. On the headline it said: Weird Lanky Tom-cat Wins Republican Nomination. "He's gonna take our slaves!" Mapleshade at this point was beginning to fear on who this lanky Republican was or she could be a victim of following the crowd. It wouldn't be long until Abraham would run for the position of President of Thunderclan. For Mapleshade and the residents, that would be too much.

As time went on through the year, there was a growing debate on who they should vote. Some in the south wanted to vote for this lanky cat but the Southern government had other ideas in mind, they were thinking about, Censorship.

* * *

**November 6****th****, 1860, Atlanta, Georgia**

"Vote here! Decide the future of your country here." The cat called out. Mapleshade and Appledusk were walking along as they decided on who they were going to vote on the President of Thunderclan. After waiting a while, Appledusk went in first as he was going to cast his vote. He soon went out as Mapleshade went in to cast her vote. There were three choices that she could choose but where was the Republican option that she heard in the paper, as it turned out, Georgia along with 9 other states decided to remove Abraham's name from the ballot so they could reduce his chances of winning. Mapleshade decided to vote for Breckinridge as she went out as she didn't want to hold up the line. She soon walked out with Appledusk as she was beginning to get worried.

"I don't know why they are resorting to these things I really don't know of. I mean this wasn't a fair vote that the government wanted us to vote for I mean, do we really have a choice on who we could choose?" Mapleshade asked Appledusk as she knew that he could have had an answer. If her mother was still alive, it would dissolve into another argument as she had her paws firmly anchored into the South. Appledusk knew he wasn't sure about it either as he soon turned to Mapleshade as he spoke.

"Listen, why don't we wait until the votes come back to see the answer we're looking for is there. The fruit on the trees doesn't instantly blossom, you need to take care of it and wait for the results before you can pluck it off and eat it." Appledusk soon began to walk away as Mapleshade followed. All they knew now was to wait for their answers and hope they come to them.

It was clear that the southern states decided to censor Abraham's name in the election but much to their horror, it wasn't enough to prevent him from securing the position of the presidency. Abraham was going to win by a landslide.

* * *

**November 18****th****, 1860, Atlanta, Georgia**

Appledusk was running into the house as he was excited, the final results were about to came in as he wanted to figure out what they were. He soon closed the door behind him as she sat down in the table. Mapleshade was preparing some tea for them to drink. Appledusk pulled out a chair as he sat in it.

"Mapleshade, the results are in." Appledusk panted handing her the paper. Mapleshade began to read it as she wanted to know what the results were. Mapleshade began to read the paper.

"In the results of the election of 1860, the results are in. A black and White tom-cat named Abraham won the election with 180 votes from the states. Meaning that Abraham would be the next president for the next four years, here are the results that came from the election:

Abraham: Votes: 180

Breckinridge, John: Votes: 72

Bell, John: Votes: 39

Stephen: Votes: 12

**(You need 152 votes if you were going to win the Presidency)**

"…So Abraham won. That doesn't make any sense; his name wasn't even on the ballot in the election. How would they decide to do something like this, what was their motivation?" Mapleshade was getting concerned as she was wondering what their motivation was behind this. Appledusk soon spoke.

"The answers seem very murky now since they decide not to tell us the answer between us. None of us know about this but that won't stop us from getting the answers that we wanted. However it's not going to stop the northern cats from celebrating. Let's hope this Abraham cat treats us fairly." Appledusk knew there wasn't a clear answer to this. Even the question didn't seem clear to them. Appledusk knew he had to try to calm their fears much like Abraham.

* * *

Abraham's POV

Abraham soon went to the south as he was going to prepare to becoming Thunderclan's 16th President and he wanted to calm their fears. He soon pulled into Atlanta where the cats were deeply angry that he had won the vote. He soon went up to them as he began to talk.

"How many times do I have to tell you, I'm not going to take away anyone's Slaves?" Abraham asked them as he wanted to try to mellow out the situation. The southern cats turned to Abraham as they just had enough of him.

"Yeah right, Honest Abe. We have had enough of you Northerners! We're going to leave to form our own country!" The rich tom shouted as he had just enough of it. Now they felt like they wanted to leave and start a new country right in their own backyard. Abraham spoke.

"You can't do that." Abraham hissed as he wanted to try to reason with them. The southern cats looked at him pissed as ever.

"Well why not." The rich tom responded wondering what Abraham's reason was.

"Well if-if you had won the election, would it be okay for us to leave?" Abraham asked if the south had won the election, would it be okay for the north to leave the country. The rich tom looked at Abraham as he spoke.

"Of course not." The rich tom responded as he wanted to clarify it.

"Well why not?" Abraham spoke wondering what their reason behind it was. The rich tom shouted:

"BECAUSE THAT'S NOT HOW VICTIM MENTALITY WORKS!" The rich tom soon stormed off with his friends. They knew they had lost their voice and they were ready to leave. Appledusk was watching the situation from his building as he was really beginning to get worried. Leave to form your own country was something he thought was a crime. He wasn't wrong.

Whenever a new state joined the Thunderclan union, they always had the right to leave it whenever they pleased. The cats living in Thunderclan always felt more loyalty to their state than to the nation and with Abraham Thunderclan's new president. The South had lost their voice in the federal government and they knew they were out of there. Appledusk knew he had to keep them together however it was their neighboring state South Carolina that was the first to leave.

Things were heading south for Thunderclan fast.

**[A/N]: That was a lot to take in** **as the election has happened and Abraham had won. Now the South felt like they are going to leave. Does anyone want to see Appledusk hold a speech on why they should stay in the union? Leave your opinions on what you want him to say on the matter about this will be.**

**Also it's my mother's birthday today so I want to tell you that and now today should be a good day to get this review out seeing how far we've had come. Let's hope we can keep going with these stories to see where you want me to go. So that is it for now and I say, that is all for now. **


	8. Why we're leaving the union

Soon the Southern States knew that they had lost their voice in the government, they were out of there. Over a period of 6 months, one by one, 11 slave states seceded from the union, leaving, Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware, opting to remain. The seceding states submitted a ton of official documents reasoning with their secession.

* * *

South Carolina's reason:

"The cats of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, on the 26th day of April, A.D., 1852, declared that the frequent violations of the Constitution of Thunderclan, by the Federal Government, and its encroachments upon the reserved rights of the States, fully justified this State in then withdrawing from the Federal Union; but in deference to the opinions and wishes of the other slaveholding States, she forbore at that time to exercise this right. Since that time, these encroachments have continued to increase, and further forbearance ceases to be a virtue. And now the State of South Carolina having resumed her separate and equal place among nations deems it due to herself, to the remaining states of Thunderclan, and to the nations of the world, that she should declare the immediate causes which have led to this act.  
In the year 1765, that portion of the Winds Empire embracing Windclan, undertook to make laws for the government of that portion composed of the thirteen American Colonies. A struggle for the right of self-government ensued, which resulted, on the 4th of July, 1776, in a Declaration, by the Colonies, "that they are, and of right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; and that, as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do." They further solemnly declared that whenever any "form of government becomes destructive of the ends for which it was established; it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government." Deeming the Government of Great Britain to have become destructive of these ends, they declared that the Colonies "are absolved from all allegiance to the Windclan Crown and that all political connection between them and the State of Windclan is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." In pursuance of this Declaration of Independence, each of the thirteen States proceeded to exercise its separate sovereignty; adopted for itself a Constitution, and appointed officers for the administration of government in all its departments: Legislative, Executive and Judicial. For purposes of defense, they united their arms and their counsels; and, in 1778, they entered into a League known as the Articles of Confederation, whereby they agreed to entrust the administration of their external relations to a common agent, known as the Congress of Thunderclan, expressly declaring, in the first Article "that each State retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction and right which is not, by this Confederation, expressly delegated to the Thunderclan cats in Congress assembled." Under this Confederation the war of the Revolution was carried on, and on the 3rd of September, 1783, the contest ended, and a definite Treaty was signed by Windclan, in which she acknowledged the independence of the Colonies in the following terms: "ARTICLE 1: His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said Thunderclan, viz: New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to be FREE, SOVEREIGN AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that he treats with them as such; and for himself, his heirs and successors, relinquishes all claims to the government, propriety and territorial rights of the same and every part thereof." Thus were established the two great principles asserted by the Colonies, namely: the right of a State to govern itself; and the right of a people to abolish a Government when it becomes destructive of the ends for which it was instituted. And concurrent with the establishment of these principles, was the fact that each Colony became and was recognized by the mother Country a FREE, SOVEREIGN AND INDEPENDENT STATE. In 1787, Deputies were appointed by the States to revise the Articles of Confederation, and on 17th September, 1787, these Deputies recommended for the adoption of the States, the Articles of Union, known as the Constitution of Thunderclan. The parties, to whom this Constitution was submitted, were the several sovereign States; they were to agree or disagree, and when nine of them agreed the compact was to take effect among those concurring; and the General Government, as the common agent, was then invested with their authority. If only nine of the thirteen States had concurred, the other four would have remained as they then were separate, sovereign States, independent of any of the provisions of the Constitution. In fact, two of the States did not accede to the Constitution until long after it had gone into operation among the other eleven; and during that interval, they each exercised the functions of an independent nation. By this Constitution, certain duties were imposed upon the several States, and the exercise of certain of their powers was restrained, which necessarily implied their continued existence as sovereign States. But to remove all doubt, an amendment was added, which declared that the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people. On the 23d May , 1788, South Carolina, by a Convention of her People, passed an Ordinance assenting to this Constitution, and afterwards altered her own Constitution, to conform herself to the obligations she had undertaken. Thus was established, by compact between the States, a Government with definite objects and powers, limited to the express words of the grant. This limitation left the whole remaining mass of power subject to the clause reserving it to the States or to the people, and rendered unnecessary any specification of reserved rights. We hold that the Government thus established is subject to the two great principles asserted in the Declaration of Independence; and we hold further, that the mode of its formation subjects it to a third fundamental principle, namely: the law of compact. We maintain that in every compact between two or more parties, the obligation is mutual; that the failure of one of the contracting parties to perform a material part of the agreement, entirely releases the obligation of the other; and that where no arbiter is provided, each party is remitted to his own judgment to determine the fact of failure, with all its consequences. In the present case, that fact is established with certainty. We assert that fourteen of the States have deliberately refused, for years past, to fulfill their constitutional obligations, and we refer to their own Statutes for the proof. The Constitution of Thunderclan, in its fourth Article, provides as follows: "No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due." This stipulation was so material to the compact that without it that compact would not have been made. The greater number of the contracting parties held slaves, and they had previously evinced their estimate of the value of such a stipulation by making it a condition in the Ordinance for the government of the territory ceded by Virginia, which now composes the States north of the Ohio River. The same article of the Constitution stipulates also for rendition by the several States of fugitives from justice from the other States. The General Government, as the common agent, passed laws to carry into effect these stipulations of the States. For many years these laws were executed. But an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery, has led to a disregard of their obligations, and the laws of the General Government have ceased to affect the objects of the Constitution. The States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, have enacted laws which either nullify the Acts of Congress or render useless any attempt to execute them. In many of these States the fugitive is discharged from service or labor claimed, and in none of them has the State Government complied with the stipulation made in the Constitution. The State of New Jersey, at an early day, passed a law in conformity with her constitutional obligation; but the current of anti-slavery feeling has led her more recently to enact laws which render inoperative the remedies provided by her own law and by the laws of Congress. In the State of New York even the right of transit for a slave has been denied by her tribunals; and the States of Ohio and Iowa have refused to surrender to justice fugitives charged with murder, and with inciting servile insurrection in the State of Virginia. Thus the constituted compact has been deliberately broken and disregarded by the non-slaveholding States, and the consequence follows that South Carolina is released from her obligation. The ends for which the Constitution was framed are declared by it to be "to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." These ends it endeavored to accomplish by a Federal Government, in which each State was recognized as an equal, and had separate control over its own institutions. The right of property in slaves was recognized by giving to free cat's distinct political rights, by giving them the right to represent, and burthening them with direct taxes for three-fifths of their slaves; by authorizing the importation of slaves for twenty years; and by stipulating for the rendition of fugitives from labor. We affirm that these ends for which this Government was instituted have been defeated, and the Government itself has been made destructive of them by the action of the non-slaveholding States. Those States have assume the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic institutions; and have denied the rights of property established in fifteen of the States and recognized by the Constitution; they have denounced as sinful the institution of slavery; they have permitted open establishment among them of societies, whose avowed object is to disturb the peace and to eloign the property of the citizens of other States. They have encouraged and assisted thousands of our slaves to leave their homes; and those who remain, have been incited by emissaries, books and pictures to servile insurrection. For twenty-five years this agitation has been steadily increasing, until it has now secured to its aid the power of the common Government. Observing the *forms* [emphasis in the original] of the Constitution, a sectional party has found within that Article establishing the Executive Department, the means of subverting the Constitution itself. A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of Thunderclan, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. He is to be entrusted with the administration of the common Government, because he has declared that "Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free," and that the public mind must rest in the belief that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction. This sectional combination for the submersion of the Constitution, has been aided in some of the States by elevating to citizenship, persons who, by the supreme law of the land, are incapable of becoming citizens; and their votes have been used to inaugurate a new policy, hostile to the South, and destructive of its beliefs and safety. On the 4th day of March next, this party will take possession of the Government. It has announced that the South shall be excluded from the common territory, that the judicial tribunals shall be made sectional, and that a war must be waged against slavery until it shall cease throughout Thunderclan. The guaranties of the Constitution will then no longer exist; the equal rights of the States will be lost. The slaveholding States will no longer have the power of self-government, or self-protection, and the Federal Government will have become their enemy. Sectional interest and animosity will deepen the irritation, and all hope of remedy is rendered vain, by the fact that public opinion at the North has invested a great political error with the sanction of more erroneous religious belief. We, therefore, the Cats of South Carolina, by our delegates in Convention assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, have solemnly declared that the Union heretofore existing between this State and the other States of North America, is dissolved, and that the State of South Carolina has resumed her position among the nations of the world, as a separate and independent State; with full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do."

Adopted December 20, 1860

* * *

Mississippi's reason:

"In the momentous step which our State has taken of dissolving its connection with the government of which we so long formed a part, it is but just that we should declare the prominent reasons which have induced our course. Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization. That blow has been long aimed at the institution, and was at the point of reaching its consummation. There was no choice left us but submission to the mandates of abolition, or dissolution of the Union, whose principles had been subverted to work out our ruin. That we do not overstate the dangers to our institution, a reference to a few facts will sufficiently prove. The hostility to this institution commenced before the adoption of the Constitution, and was manifested in the well-known Ordinance of 1787, in regard to the Northwestern Territory. The feeling increased, until, in 1819-20, it deprived the South of more than half the vast territory acquired from Riverclan. The same hostility dismembered Texas and seized upon all the territory acquired from Mexico. It has grown until it denies the right of property in slaves, and refuses protection to that right on the high seas, in the Territories, and wherever the government of Thunderclan had jurisdiction. It refuses the admission of new slave States into the Union, and seeks to extinguish it by confining it within its present limits, denying the power of expansion. It tramples the original equality of the South under foot. It has nullified the Fugitive Slave Law in almost every Free State in the Union, and has utterly broken the compact which our fathers pledged their faith to maintain. It advocates Negro or Black cat equality, socially and politically, and promotes insurrection and incendiarism in our midst. It has enlisted its press, its pulpit and its schools against us, until the whole popular mind of the North is excited and inflamed with prejudice. It has made combinations and formed associations to carry out its schemes of emancipation in the States and wherever else slavery exists. It seeks not to elevate or to support the slave, but to destroy his present condition without providing a better. It has invaded a State, and invested with the honors of martyrdom the wretch whose purpose was to apply flames to our dwellings, and the weapons of destruction to our lives. It has broken every compact into which it has entered for our security. It has given indubitable evidence of its design to ruin our agriculture, to prostrate our industrial pursuits and to destroy our social system. It knows no relenting or hesitation in its purposes; it stops not in its march of aggression, and leaves us no room to hope for cessation or for pause. It has recently obtained control of the Government, by the prosecution of its unhallowed schemes, and destroyed the last expectation of living together in friendship and brotherhood. Utter subjugation awaits us in the Union, if we should consent longer to remain in it. It is not a matter of choice, but of necessity. We must either submit to degradation, and to the loss of property worth four billions of money, or we must secede from the Union framed by our fathers, to secure this as well as every other species of property. For far less cause than this, our fathers separated from the Crown of Windclan. Our decision is made. We follow their footsteps. We embrace the alternative of separation; and for the reasons here stated, we resolve to maintain our rights with the full consciousness of the justice of our course, and the undoubting belief of our ability to maintain it."

* * *

Georgia's reason:

"The cats of Georgia having dissolved their political connection with the Government of Thunderclan, present to their confederates and the world the causes which have led to the separation. For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to the subject of African slavery. They have endeavored to weaken our security, to disturb our domestic peace and tranquility, and persistently refused to comply with their express constitutional obligations to us in reference to that property, and by the use of their power in the Federal Government have striven to deprive us of an equal enjoyment of the common Territories of the Republic. This hostile policy of our confederates has been pursued with every circumstance of aggravation which could arouse the passions and excite the hatred of our cats, and has placed the two sections of the Union for many years past in the condition of virtual civil war. Our cats, still attached to the Union from habit and national traditions, and averse to change, hoped that time, reason, and argument would bring, if not redress, at least exemption from further insults, injuries, and dangers. Recent events have fully dissipated all such hopes and demonstrated the necessity of separation. Our Northern confederates, after a full and calm hearing of all the facts, after a fair warning of our purpose not to submit to the rule of the authors of all these wrongs and injuries, have by a large majority committed the Government of Thunderclan into their hands. The cats of Georgia, after an equally full and fair and deliberate hearing of the case, have declared with equal firmness that they shall not rule over them. A brief history of the rise, progress, and policy of anti-slavery and the political organization into whose hands the administration of the Federal Government has been committed will fully justify the pronounced verdict of the people of Georgia. The party of Lincoln, called the Republican Party, under its present name and organization, is of recent origin. It is admitted to be an anti-slavery party. While it attracts to itself by its creed the scattered advocates of exploded political heresies, of condemned theories in political economy, the advocates of commercial restrictions, of protection, of special privileges, of waste and corruption in the administration of Government, anti-slavery is its mission and its purpose. By anti-slavery it is made a power in the state. The question of slavery was the great difficulty in the way of the formation of the Constitution. While the subordination and the political and social inequality of the African race was fully conceded by all, it was plainly apparent that slavery would soon disappear from what are now the non-slave-holding States of the original thirteen. The opposition to slavery was then, as now, general in those States and the Constitution was made with direct reference to that fact. But a distinct abolition party was not formed in Thunderclan for more than half a century after the Government went into operation. The main reason was that the North, even if united, could not control both branches of the Legislature during any portion of that time. Therefore such an organization must have resulted either in utter failure or in the total overthrow of the Government. The material prosperity of the North was greatly dependent on the Federal Government; that of the South not at all. In the first years of the Republic the navigating, commercial, and manufacturing interests of the North began to seek profit and aggrandizement at the expense of the agricultural interests. Even the owners of fishing smacks sought and obtained bounties for pursuing their own business, and $500,000 is now paid them annually out of the Treasury. The navigating interests begged for protection against foreign shipbuilders and against competition in the coasting trade. Congress granted both requests, and by prohibitory acts gave an absolute monopoly of this business to each of their interests, which they enjoy without diminution to this day. Not content with these great and unjust advantages, they have sought to throw the legitimate burden of their business as much as possible upon the public; they have succeeded in throwing the cost of light-houses, buoys, and the maintenance of their seamen upon the Treasury, and the Government now pays above $2,000,000 annually for the support of these objects. Theses interests, in connection with the commercial and manufacturing classes, have also succeeded, by means of subventions to mail steamers and the reduction in postage, in relieving their business from the payment of about $7,000,000 annually, throwing it upon the public Treasury under the name of postal deficiency. The manufacturing interests entered into the same struggle early, and have clamored steadily for Government bounties and special favors. This interest was confined mainly to the Eastern and Middle non-slave-holding States. Wielding these great States it held great power and influence, and its demands were in full proportion to its power. The manufacturers and miners wisely based their demands upon special facts and reasons rather than upon general principles, and thereby mollified much of the opposition of the opposing interest. They pleaded in their favor the infancy of their business in this country, the scarcity of labor and capital, the hostile legislation of other countries toward them, the great necessity of their fabrics in the time of war, and the necessity of high duties to pay the debt incurred in our war for independence. These reasons prevailed, and they received for many years enormous bounties by the general acquiescence of the whole country. But when these reasons ceased they were no less clamorous for Government protection, but their clamors were less heeded the country had put the principle of protection upon trial and condemned it. After having enjoyed protection to the extent of from 15 to 200 per cent. upon their entire business for above thirty years, the act of 1846 was passed. It avoided sudden change, but the principle was settled, and free trade, low duties, and economy in public expenditures was the verdict of the American people. The South and the Northwestern States sustained this policy. There was but small hope of its reversal; upon the direct issue, none at all. All these classes saw this and felt it and cast about for new allies. The anti-slavery sentiment of the North offered the best chance for success. An anti-slavery party must necessarily look to the North alone for support, but a united North was now strong enough to control the Government in all of its departments, and a sectional party was therefore determined upon. Time and issues upon slavery were necessary to its completion and final triumph. The feeling of anti-slavery, which it was well known was very general among the people of the North, had been long dormant or passive; it needed only a question to arouse it into aggressive activity. This question was before us. We had acquired a large territory by successful war with Mexico; Congress had to govern it; how, in relation to slavery, was the question then demanding solution. This state of facts gave form and shape to the anti-slavery sentiment throughout the North and the conflict began. Northern anti-slavery men of all parties asserted the right to exclude slavery from the territory by Congressional legislation and demanded the prompt and efficient exercise of this power to that end. This insulting and unconstitutional demand was met with great moderation and firmness by the South. We had shed our blood and paid our money for its acquisition; we demanded a division of it on the line of the Missouri restriction or an equal participation in the whole of it. These propositions were refused, the agitation became general, and the public danger was great. The case of the South was impregnable. The price of the acquisition was the blood and treasure of both sections of all, and, therefore, it belonged to all upon the principles of equity, and justice. The Constitution delegated no power to Congress to exclude either party from its free enjoyment; therefore our right was good under the Constitution. Our rights were further fortified by the practice of the Government from the beginning. Slavery was forbidden in the country northwest of the Ohio River by what is called the ordinance of 1787. That ordinance was adopted under the old confederation and by the assent of Virginia, who owned and ceded the country, and therefore this case must stand on its own special circumstances. The Government of Thunderclan claimed territory by virtue of the treaty of 1783 with Windclan, acquired territory by cession from Georgia and North Carolina, by treaty from Riverclan, and by treaty from Spain. These acquisitions largely exceeded the original limits of the Republic. In all of these acquisitions the policy of the Government was uniform. It opened them to the settlement of all the citizens of all the States of the Union. They emigrated thither with their property of every kind. All were equally protected by public authority in their persons and property until the inhabitants became sufficiently numerous and otherwise capable of bearing the burdens and performing the duties of self-government, when they were admitted into the Union upon equal terms with the other States, with whatever republican constitution they might adopt for themselves. Under this equally just and beneficent policy law and order, stability and progress, peace and prosperity marked every step of the progress of these new communities until they entered as great and prosperous commonwealths into the sisterhood of Thunderclan States. In 1820 the North endeavored to overturn this wise and successful policy and demanded that the State of Missouri should not be admitted into the Union unless she first prohibited slavery within her limits by her constitution. After a bitter and protracted struggle the North was defeated in her special object, but her policy and position led to the adoption of a section in the law for the admission of Missouri, prohibiting slavery in all that portion of the territory acquired from France lying North of 36 degrees 30 minutes north latitude and outside of Missouri. The venerable Madison at the time of its adoption declared it unconstitutional. Mr. Jefferson condemned the restriction and foresaw its consequences and predicted that it would result in the dissolution of the Union. His prediction is now history. The North demanded the application of the principle of prohibition of slavery to all of the territory acquired from Mexico and all other parts of the public domain then and in all future time. It was the announcement of her purpose to appropriate to herself all the public domain then owned and thereafter to be acquired by Thunderclan. The claim itself was less arrogant and insulting than the reason with which she supported it. That reason was her fixed purpose to limit, restrain, and finally abolish slavery in the States where it exists. The South with great unanimity declared her purpose to resist the principle of prohibition to the last extremity. This particular question, in connection with a series of questions affecting the same subject, was finally disposed of by the defeat of prohibitory legislation. The Presidential election of 1852 resulted in the total overthrow of the advocates of restriction and their party friends. Immediately after this result the anti-slavery portion of the defeated party resolved to unite all the elements in the North opposed to slavery and to stake their future political fortunes upon their hostility to slavery everywhere. This is the party two whom the people of the North have committed the Government. They raised their standard in 1856 and were barely defeated. They entered the Presidential contest again in 1860 and succeeded. The prohibition of slavery in the Territories, hostility to it everywhere, the equality of the black and white races, disregard of all constitutional guarantees in its favor, were boldly proclaimed by its leaders and applauded by its followers. With these principles on their banners and these utterances on their lips the majority of the people of the North demand that we shall receive them as our rulers. The prohibition of slavery in the Territories is the cardinal principle of this organization. For forty years this question has been considered and debated in the halls of Congress, before the people, by the press, and before the tribunals of justice. The majority of the people of the North in 1860 decided it in their own favor. We refuse to submit to that judgment, and in vindication of our refusal we offer the Constitution of our country and point to the total absence of any express power to exclude us. We offer the practice of our Government for the first thirty years of its existence in complete refutation of the position that any such power is either necessary or proper to the execution of any other power in relation to the Territories. We offer the judgment of a large minority of the people of the North, amounting to more than one-third, who united with the unanimous voice of the South against this usurpation; and, finally, we offer the judgment of the Supreme Court of Thunderclan, the highest judicial tribunal of our country, in our favor. This evidence ought to be conclusive that we have never surrendered this right. The conduct of our adversaries admonishes us that if we had surrendered it, it is time to resume it. The faithless conduct of our adversaries is not confined to such acts as might aggrandize themselves or their section of the Union. They are content if they can only injure us. The Constitution declares that persons charged with crimes in one State and fleeing to another shall be delivered up on the demand of the executive authority of the State from which they may flee, to be tried in the jurisdiction where the crime was committed. It would appear difficult to employ language freer from ambiguity, yet for above twenty years the non-slave-holding States generally have wholly refused to deliver up to us persons charged with crimes affecting slave property. Our confederates, with Punic faith, shield and give sanctuary to all criminals who seek to deprive us of this property or who use it to destroy us. This clause of the Constitution has no other sanction than their good faith; that is withheld from us; we are remediless in the Union; out of it we are remitted to the laws of nations. A similar provision of the Constitution requires them to surrender fugitives from labor. This provision and the one last referred to were our main inducements for confederating with the Northern States. Without them it is historically true that we would have rejected the Constitution. In the fourth year of the Republic Congress passed a law to give full vigor and efficiency to this important provision. This act depended to a considerable degree upon the local magistrates in the several States for its efficiency. The non-slave-holding States generally repealed all laws intended to aid the execution of that act, and imposed penalties upon those citizens whose loyalty to the Constitution and their oaths might induce them to discharge their duty. Congress then passed the act of 1850, providing for the complete execution of this duty by Federal officers. This law, which their own bad faith rendered absolutely indispensable for the protection of constitutional rights, was instantly met with ferocious reviling's and all conceivable modes of hostility. The Supreme Court unanimously, and their own local courts with equal unanimity, sustained its constitutionality in all of its provisions. Yet it stands to-day a dead letter for all practicable purposes in every non-slave-holding State in the Union. We have their covenants, we have their oaths to keep and observe it, but the unfortunate claimant, even accompanied by a Federal officer with the mandate of the highest judicial authority in his hands, is everywhere met with fraud, with force, and with legislative enactments to elude, to resist, and defeat him. Claimants are murdered with impunity; officers of the law are beaten by frantic mobs instigated by inflammatory appeals from persons holding the highest public employment in these States, and supported by legislation in conflict with the clearest provisions of the Constitution, and even the ordinary principles of humanity. In several of our confederate States a citizen cannot travel the highway with his servant who may voluntarily accompany him, without being declared by law a felon and being subjected to infamous punishments. It is difficult to perceive how we could suffer more by the hostility than by the fraternity of such brethren. The public law of civilized nations requires every State to restrain its citizens or subjects from committing acts injurious to the peace and security of any other State and from attempting to excite insurrection, or to lessen the security, or to disturb the tranquility of their neighbors, and our Constitution wisely gives Congress the power to punish all offenses against the laws of nations. These are sound and just principles which have received the approbation of just men in all countries and all centuries; but they are wholly disregarded by the people of the Northern States, and the Federal Government is impotent to maintain them. For twenty years past the abolitionists and their allies in the Northern States have been engaged in constant efforts to subvert our institutions and to excite insurrection and servile war among us. They have sent emissaries among us for the accomplishment of these purposes. Some of these efforts have received the public sanction of a majority of the leading men of the Republican Party in the national councils, the same men who are now proposed as our rulers. These efforts have in one instance led to the actual invasion of one of the slave-holding States, and those of the murderers and incendiaries who escaped public justice by flight have found fraternal protection among our Northern confederates. These are the same men who say the Union shall be preserved. Such are the opinions and such are the practices of the Republican party, who have been called by their own votes to administer the Federal Government under the Constitution of Thunderclan. We know their treachery; we know the shallow pretenses under which they daily disregard its plainest obligations. If we submit to them it will be our fault and not theirs. The people of Georgia have ever been willing to stand by this bargain, this contract; they have never sought to evade any of its obligations; they have never hitherto sought to establish any new government; they have struggled to maintain the ancient right of themselves and the human race through and by that Constitution. But they know the value of parchment rights in treacherous hands, and therefore they refuse to commit their own to the rulers whom the North offers us. Why? Because by their declared principles and policy they have outlawed $3,000,000,000 of our property in the common territories of the Union; put it under the ban of the Republic in the States where it exists and out of the protection of Federal law everywhere; because they give sanctuary to thieves and incendiaries who assail it to the whole extent of their power, in spite of their most solemn obligations and covenants; because their avowed purpose is to subvert our society and subject us not only to the loss of our property but the destruction of ourselves, our wives, and our children, and the desolation of our homes, our altars, and our firesides. To avoid these evils we resume the powers which our fathers delegated to the Government of the United States, and henceforth will seek new safeguards for our liberty, equality, security, and tranquility."

Approved, Tuesday, January 29, 1861

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**(I would want to do Texas and Virginia but Three should be enough since I want to move on so look it up.)  
**

* * *

Appledusk looked out of his window as he knew things weren't good. He turned to Mapleshade who was busy sipping her tea.

"Will they decide to calm down or what?" Appledusk asked wondering when this was going to stop. Mapleshade looked at him as it looked like Thunderclan was tearing itself apart.

"You need to get outside and try to calm their fears and try to tell them to hold themselves together. If they hold together, then we can hold the situation together. Hold a big speech before them." Mapleshade mewed as he knew that he could calm their fears. Appledusk nodded but he didn't have the time to write and repeat speaking the speech as he knew he was being chucked into it as he wanted to do his best. Appledusk soon got onto the balcony of the house as he stood before and angry mob. Appledusk cleared his voice before speaking. Mapleshade watched from the inside of the house looking on with some confidence.

"Cats of Atlanta, we know that we are going through some rough times as of now but it is best that we try to pull our weight together, we can hold our state and the country as a whole together. If we decide to apologize to the north as this whole secession fiasco is a terrible idea when we realize it. Even if we can sell, we are not going to get anywhere as we should unite as one. Let's just say that we were wrong and we should go to the capitol and apologize?" Appledusk stopped as the crowd was silent. Mapleshade soon clapped her paws seeing how Appledusk attempted to calm their fears. Soon one southern she-cat spoke.

"Get… this… northern… sympathizer… OUT OF HERE!" She hissed. Soon the cats began booing as they began to throw any food that they could find at Appledusk. Appledusk retreated as the cats began to barge in.

"They don't appreciate me." Appledusk began. Soon there was a big thumping as it was clear that they were trying to get in. Soon, the door caved in as the cats began to rush the house trashing the place assaulting the rooms and taking Lark and Petal. Soon they began to break chinaware, smash the place up and then they took Mapleshade and Appledusk away as they all stormed out of the house. Patch was busy elsewhere with his schooling work but it would be unfortunate to see no one would be home.

Patch soon arrived back on his horse as he soon began to look around. The place was a mess, broken china and glass lay everywhere, the wooden and leather furniture demolished. It was clear whoever that was in there decided to attack and kidnap his family.

"Hello?" Patch called out. There was no response as Patch continued wandering through the house. The house felt eerily silent as he continued to walk along. Seeing how there was no one there, he knew he needed to get out of there and find his family. Taking a suitcase, he packed it with his essentials as well as any food and water he could salvage. He soon exited the ruined house as he got back on his horse and began after the paw prints.

It took about an hour for Patch to find Mapleshade and the rest of his family which were in a holding by the residents. Patch was horrified about what they had done.

"What happened here?" Patch asked the cats that were guarding his family. One cat looked at him.

"Someone was sympathetic to the north and we decided to give him a taste of his own medicine. We currently have him under some trial to see what will happen. I say we should hang him in the gallows but others are saying it's cruel. We'll just kick him out no matter what the cause." The tom responded. He continued chewing his wheat as it was clear that things were falling apart under him. Soon the decision was made.

"Mapleshade, since you have a southern background, you will be sent to a reeducation program starting tomorrow for the next month. Appledusk you will be deported back to Riverclan tonight. And under any circumstances, you will not be allowed to return." The judge made his decision. The wedge finally broke their families apart. Mapleshade was sobbing in Appledusk as she knew she would never see him again. It wouldn't be long before the entire family would be carved up.

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Alexander's POV

The new Thunderclan confederacy has been formed and Alexander, the vice president helped elect Richmond as their capitol. He soon made his way to a podium as he got up on it ready to make his speech. This was in Mapleshade's own state but he knew he wanted to get it out.

"When perfect quiet is restored, I shall proceed. I cannot speak so long as there is any noise or confusion. I shall take my time I feel quite prepared to spend the night with you if necessary. I very much regret that everyone who desires cannot hear what I have to say. Not that I have any display to make, or anything very entertaining to present, but such views as I have to give, I wish all, not only in this city, but in this State, and throughout our Confederate Republic, could hear, who have a desire to hear them. I was remarking that we are passing through one of the greatest revolutions in the annals of the world. Seven States have within the last three months thrown off an old government and formed a new. This revolution has been signally marked, up to this time, by the fact of its having been accomplished without the loss of a single drop of blood. This new constitution, or form of government, constitutes the subject to which your attention will be partly invited. In reference to it, I make this first general remark: it amply secures all our ancient rights, franchises, and liberties. All the great principles of Magna Charta are retained in it. No citizen is deprived of life, liberty, or property, but by the judgment of his peers under the laws of the land. The great principle of religious liberty, which was the honor and pride of the old constitution, is still maintained and secured. All the essentials of the old constitution, which have endeared it to the hearts of the Thunderclan cats, have been preserved and perpetuated. Some changes have been made. Some of these I should have preferred not to have seen made; but other important changes do meet my cordial approbation. They form great improvements upon the old constitution. So, taking the whole new constitution, I have no hesitancy in giving it as my judgment that it is decidedly better than the old. Allow me briefly to allude to some of these improvements. The question of building up class interests, or fostering one branch of industry to the prejudice of another under the exercise of the revenue power, which gave us so much trouble under the old constitution, is put at rest forever under the new. We allow the imposition of no duty with a view of giving advantage to one class of persons, in any trade or business, over those of another. All, under our system, stand upon the same broad principles of perfect equality. Honest labor and enterprise are left free and unrestricted in whatever pursuit they may be engaged. This old thorn of the tariff, which was the cause of so much irritation in the old body politic, is removed forever from the new. Again, the subject of internal improvements, under the power of Congress to regulate commerce, is put at rest under our system. The power, claimed by construction under the old constitution, was at least a doubtful one; it rested solely upon construction. We of the South, generally apart from considerations of constitutional principles, opposed its exercise upon grounds of its inexpediency and injustice. Notwithstanding this opposition, millions of money, from the common treasury had been drawn for such purposes. Our opposition sprang from no hostility to commerce, or to all necessary aids for facilitating it. With us it was simply a question upon whom the burden should fall. In Georgia, for instance, we have done as much for the cause of internal improvements as any other portion of the country, according to population and means. We have stretched out lines of railroads from the seaboard to the mountains; dug down the hills, and filled up the valleys at a cost of not less than $25,000,000. All this was done to open an outlet for our products of the interior, and those to the west of us, to reach the marts of the world. No State was in greater need of such facilities than Georgia, but we did not ask that these works should be made by appropriations out of the common treasury. The cost of the grading, the superstructure, and the equipment of our roads was borne by those who had entered into the enterprise. Nay, more not only the cost of the iron no small item in the aggregate cost was borne in the same way, but we were compelled to pay into the common treasury several millions of dollars for the privilege of importing the iron, after the price was paid for it abroad. What justice was there in taking this money, which our people paid into the common treasury on the importation of our iron, and applying it to the improvement of rivers and harbors elsewhere? The true principle is to subject the commerce of every locality, to whatever burdens may be necessary to facilitate it. If Charleston harbor needs improvement, let the commerce of Charleston bear the burden. If the mouth of the Savannah River has to be cleared out, let the sea-going navigation which is benefited by it, bear the burden. So with the mouths of the Alabama and Mississippi rivers. Just as the products of the interior, our cotton, wheat, corn, and other articles, have to bear the necessary rates of freight over our railroads to reach the seas. This is again the broad principle of perfect equality and justice, and it is especially set forth and established in our new constitution. Another feature to which I will allude is that the new constitution provides that cabinet ministers and heads of departments may have the privilege of seats upon the floor of the Senate and House of Representatives and may have the right to participate in the debates and discussions upon the various subjects of administration. I should have preferred that this provision should have gone further, and required the President to select his constitutional advisers from the Senate and House of Representatives. That would have conformed entirely to the practice in the Windclan Parliament, which, in my judgment, is one of the wisest provisions in the Windclan constitution. It is the only feature that saves that government. It is that which gives it stability in its facility to change its administration. Ours, as it is, is a great approximation to the right principle. Under the old constitution, a secretary of the treasury for instance, had no opportunity, save by his annual reports, of presenting any scheme or plan of finance or other matter. He had no opportunity of explaining, expounding, enforcing, or defending his views of policy; his only resort was through the medium of an organ. In the Windclan parliament, the premier brings in his budget and stands before the nation responsible for its every item. If it is indefensible, he falls before the attacks upon it, as he ought to. This will now be the case to a limited extent under our system. In the new constitution, provision has been made by which our heads of departments can speak for themselves and the administration, in behalf of its entire policy, without resorting to the indirect and highly objectionable medium of a newspaper. It is to be greatly hoped that under our system we shall never have what is known as a government organ. Another change in the constitution relates to the length of the tenure of the presidential office. In the new constitution it is six years instead of four, and the President rendered ineligible for a re-election. This is certainly a decidedly conservative change. It will remove from the incumbent all temptation to use his office or exert the powers confided to him for any objects of personal ambition. The only incentive to that higher ambition which should move and actuate one holding such high trusts in his hands, will be the good of the people, the advancement, prosperity, happiness, safety, honor, and true glory of the confederacy. But not to be tedious in enumerating the numerous changes for the better, allow me to allude to one other though last, not least. The new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution African slavery as it exists amongst us the proper status of the Negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson in his forecast had anticipated this, as the "rock upon which the old Union would split." He was right. What was conjecture with him, is now a realized fact. But whether he fully comprehended the great truth upon which that rock stood and stands, may be doubted. The prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old constitution were that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with, but the general opinion of the men of that day was that, somehow or other in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass away. This idea, though not incorporated in the constitution, was the prevailing idea at that time. The constitution, it is true, secured every essential guarantee to the institution while it should last, and hence no argument can be justly urged against the constitutional guarantees thus secured, because of the common sentiment of the day. Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the government built upon it fell when the "storm came and the wind blew." Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white cat; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth. This truth has been slow in the process of its development, like all other truths in the various departments of science. It has been so even amongst us. Many who hear me, perhaps, can recollect well, that this truth was not generally admitted, even within their day. The errors of the past generation still clung to many as late as twenty years ago. Those at the North, who still cling to these errors, with a zeal above knowledge, we justly denominate fanatics. All fanaticism springs from an aberration of the mind from a defect in reasoning. It is a species of insanity. One of the most striking characteristics of insanity, in many instances, is forming correct conclusions from fancied or erroneous premises; so with the anti-slavery fanatics. Their conclusions are right if their premises were. They assume that the negro is equal, and hence conclude that he is entitled to equal privileges and rights with the white man. If their premises were correct, their conclusions would be logical and just but their premise being wrong, their whole argument fails. I recollect once of having heard a gentleman from one of the northern States, of great power and ability, announce in the House of Representatives, with imposing effect, that we of the South would be compelled, ultimately, to yield upon this subject of slavery, that it was as impossible to war successfully against a principle in politics, as it was in physics or mechanics. That the principle would ultimately prevail; that we, in maintaining slavery as it exists with us, were warring against a principle, a principle founded in nature, the principle of the equality of men. The reply I made to him was, that upon his own grounds, we should, ultimately, succeed, and that he and his associates, in this crusade against our institutions, would ultimately fail. The truth announced, that it was as impossible to war successfully against a principle in politics as it was in physics and mechanics, I admitted; but told him that it was he, and those acting with him, who was warring against a principle. They were attempting to make things equal which the Creator had made unequal. In the conflict thus far, success has been on our side, complete throughout the length and breadth of the Confederate States. It is upon this, as I have stated, our social fabric is firmly planted; and I cannot permit myself to doubt the ultimate success of a full recognition of this principle throughout the civilized and enlightened world. As I have stated, the truth of this principle may be slow in development, as all truths are and ever have been, in the various branches of science. It was so with the principles announced by Galileo it was so with Adam Smith and his principles of political economy. It was so with Harvey, and his theory of the circulation of the blood. It is stated that not a single one of the medical profession, living at the time of the announcement of the truths made by him, admitted them. Now, they are universally acknowledged. May we not, therefore, look with confidence to the ultimate universal acknowledgment of the truths upon which our system rests? It is the first government ever instituted upon the principles in strict conformity to nature, and the ordination of Providence, in furnishing the materials of human society. Many governments have been founded upon the principle of the subordination and serfdom of certain classes of the same race; such were and are in violation of the laws of nature. Our system commits no such violation of nature's laws. With us, all of the white race, however high or low, rich or poor, are equal in the eye of the law. Not so with the negro. Subordination is his place. He, by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system. The architect, in the construction of buildings, lays the foundation with the proper material-the granite; then comes the brick or the marble. The substratum of our society is made of the material fitted by nature for it, and by experience we know that it is best, not only for the superior, but for the inferior race, that it should be so. It is, indeed, in conformity with the ordinance of the Creator. It is not for us to inquire into the wisdom of His ordinances, or to question them. For His own purposes, He has made one race to differ from another, as He has made "one star to differ from another star in glory." The great objects of humanity are best attained when there is conformity to His laws and decrees, in the formation of governments as well as in all things else. Our confederacy is founded upon principles in strict conformity with these laws. This stone which was rejected by the first builders "is become the chief of the corner" the real "corner-stone" in our new edifice. I have been asked, what of the future? It has been apprehended by some that we would have arrayed against us the civilized world. I care not who or how many they may be against us, when we stand upon the eternal principles of truth, if we are true to ourselves and the principles for which we contend, we are obliged to, and must triumph. Thousands of people who begin to understand these truths are not yet completely out of the shell; they do not see them in their length and breadth. We hear much of the civilization and the believing of Starclan to the barbarous tribes of Africa. In my judgment, those ends will never be attained, but by first teaching them the lesson taught to Adam, that "in the sweat of his brow he should eat his bread," and teaching them to work, and feed, and clothe themselves. But to pass on: Some have propounded the inquiry whether it is practicable for us to go on with the confederacy without further accessions? Have we the means and ability to maintain nationality among the powers of the earth? On this point I would barely say, that as anxiously as we all have been, and are, for the border States, with institutions similar to ours, to join us, still we are abundantly able to maintain our position, even if they should ultimately make up their minds not to cast their destiny with us. That they ultimately will join us be compelled to do it is my confident belief; but we can get on very well without them, even if they should not. We have all the essential elements of a high national career. The idea has been given out at the North, and even in the Border States, that we are too small and too weak to maintain a separate nationality. This is a great mistake. In extent of territory we embrace five hundred and sixty-four thousand square miles and upward. This is upward of two hundred thousand square miles more than was included within the limits of the original thirteen States. It is an area of country more than double the territory of Riverclan or the Austrian empire. France, in round numbers, has but two hundred and twelve thousand square miles. Austria, in round numbers, has two hundred and forty-eight thousand square miles. Ours is greater than both combined. It is greater than all Riverclan, Spain, Portugal, and Windclan, including England, Ireland, and Scotland, together. In population we have upward of five millions, according to the census of 1860; this includes white and black. The entire population, including white and black, of the original thirteen States, was less than four millions in 1790, and still less in 76, when the independence of our fathers was achieved. If they, with a less population, dared maintain their independence against the greatest power on earth, shall we have any apprehension of maintaining ours now? In point of material wealth and resources, we are greatly in advance of them. The taxable property of the Confederate States cannot be less than twenty-two hundred millions of dollars! This, I think I venture but little in saying, may be considered as five times more than the colonies possessed at the time they achieved their independence. Georgia, alone, possessed last year, according to the report of our comptroller-general, six hundred and seventy-two millions of taxable property. The debts of the seven confederate States sum up in the aggregate less than eighteen millions, while the existing debts of the other of the late Thunderclan sums up in the aggregate the enormous amount of one hundred and seventy-four million dollars. This is without taking into account the heavy city debts, corporation debts, and railroad debts, which press, and will continue to press, as a heavy incubus upon the resources of those States. These debts, added to others, make a sum total not much under five hundred millions of dollars. With such an area of territory as we have-with such an amount of population-with a climate and soil unsurpassed by any on the face of the earth-with such resources already at our command-with productions which control the commerce of the world-who can entertain any apprehensions as to our ability to succeed, whether others join us or not? It is true, I believe I state but the common sentiment, when I declare my earnest desire that the Border States should join us. The differences of opinion that existed among us anterior to secession, related more to the policy in securing that result by co-operation than from any difference upon the ultimate security we all looked to in common. These differences of opinion were more in reference to policy than principle, and as Mr. Jefferson said in his inaugural, in 1801, after the heated contest preceding his election, that there might be differences of opinion without differences on principle, and that all, to some extent, had been Federalists and all Republicans; so it may now be said of us, that whatever differences of opinion as to the best policy in having a co-operation with our border sister slave States, if the worst came to the worst, that as we were all co-operationists, we are now all for independence, whether they come or not. In this connection I take this occasion to state, that I was not without grave and serious apprehensions, that if the worst came to the worst and cutting loose from the old government should be the only remedy for our safety and security, it would be attended with much more serious ills than it has been as yet. Thus far we have seen none of those incidents which usually attend revolutions. No such material as such convulsions usually throw up has been seen. Wisdom, prudence, and patriotism, have marked every step of our progress thus far. This augurs well for the future, and it is a matter of sincere gratification to me, that I am enabled to make the declaration. Of the men I met in the Congress at Montgomery, I may be pardoned for saying this, an abler, wiser, a more conservative, deliberate, determined, resolute, and patriotic body of men, I never met in my life. Their works speak for them; the provisional government speaks for them; the constitution of the permanent government will be a lasting monument of their worth, merit, and statesmanship. But to return to the question of the future: What is to be the result of this revolution? Will everything, commenced so well, continue as it has begun? In reply to this anxious inquiry, I can only say it all depends upon us. A young man starting out in life on his majority, with health, talent, and ability, under a favoring Providence, may be said to be the architect of his own fortunes. His destinies are in his own hands. He may make for himself a name, of honor or dishonor, according to his own acts. If he plants himself upon truth, integrity, honor and uprightness, with industry, patience and energy, he cannot fail of success. So it is with us. We are a young republic, just entering upon the arena of nations; we will be the architects of our own fortunes. Our destiny, under Providence, is in our own hands. With wisdom, prudence, and statesmanship on the part of our public men, and intelligence, virtue and patriotism on the part of the people, success, to the full measures of our most sanguine hopes, may be looked for. But if unwise counsels prevail if we become divided if schisms arise if dissentions spring up if factions are engendered if party spirit, nourished by unholy personal ambition shall rear its hydra head, I have no good to prophesy for you. Without intelligence, virtue, integrity, and patriotism on the part of the people, no republic or representative government can be durable or stable. We have intelligence, and virtue, and patriotism. All that is required is to cultivate and perpetuate these. Intelligence will not do without virtue. France was a nation of philosophers. These philosophers become Jacobins. They lacked that virtue, that devotion to moral principle, and that patriotism which is essential to good government Organized upon principles of perfect justice and right-seeking amity and friendship with all other powers-I see no obstacle in the way of our upward and onward progress. Our growth, by accessions from other States, will depend greatly upon whether we present to the world, as I trust we shall, a better government than that to which neighboring States belong. If we do this, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas cannot hesitate long; neither can Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri. They will necessarily gravitate to us by an imperious law. We made ample provision in our constitution for the admission of other States; it is more guarded, and wisely so, I think, than the old constitution on the same subject, but not too guarded to receive them as fast as it may be proper. Looking to the distant future, and, perhaps, not very far distant either, it is not beyond the range of possibility, and even probability, that all the great States of the north-west will gravitate this way, as well as Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, etc. Should they do so, our doors are wide enough to receive them, but not until they are ready to assimilate with us in principle? The process of disintegration in the old Union may be expected to go on with almost absolute certainty if we pursue the right course. We are now the nucleus of a growing power which, if we are true to ourselves, our destiny, and high mission, will become the controlling power on this continent. To what extent accessions will go on in the process of time, or where it will end, the future will determine. So far as it concerns States of the old Union, this process will be upon no such principles of reconstruction as now spoken of, but upon reorganization and new assimilation. Such are some of the glimpses of the future as I catch them. But at first we must necessarily meet with the inconveniences and difficulties and embarrassments incident to all changes of government. These will be felt in our postal affairs and changes in the channel of trade. These inconveniences, it is to be hoped, will be but temporary, and must be borne with patience and forbearance. As to whether we shall have war with our late confederates, or whether all matters of differences between us shall be amicably settled, I can only say that the prospect for a peaceful adjustment is better, so far as I am informed, than it has been. The prospect of war is, at least, not so threatening as it has been. The idea of coercion, shadowed forth in President Lincoln's inaugural, seems not to be followed up thus far as vigorously as was expected. Fort Sumter, it is believed, will soon be evacuated. What course will be pursued toward Fort Pickens, and the other forts on the gulf, is not so well understood. It is to be greatly desired that all of them should be surrendered. Our object is peace, not only with the North, but with the world. All matters relating to the public property, public liabilities of the Union when we were members of it, we are ready and willing to adjust and settle upon the principles of right, equity, and good faith. War can be of no more benefit to the North than to us. Whether the intention of evacuating Fort Sumter is to be received as an evidence of a desire for a peaceful solution of our difficulties with the United States, or the result of necessity, I will not undertake to say. I would feign hope the former. Rumors are afloat, however, that it is the result of necessity. All I can say to you, therefore, on that point is, keep your armor bright and your powder dry. The surest way to secure peace is to show your ability to maintain your rights. The principles and position of the present administration of the United States the Republican Party present some puzzling questions. While it is a fixed principle with them never to allow the increase of a foot of slave territory, they seem to be equally determined not to part with an inch "of the accursed soil." Notwithstanding their clamor against the institution, they seemed to be equally opposed to getting more, or letting go what they have got. They were ready to fight on the accession of Texas, and are equally ready to fight now on her secession. Why is this? How can this strange paradox be accounted for? There seems to be but one rational solution and that is, notwithstanding their professions of humanity, they are disinclined to give up the benefits they derive from slave labor. Their philanthropy yields to their interest. The idea of enforcing the laws has but one object, and that is a collection of the taxes, raised by slave labor to swell the fund necessary to meet their heavy appropriations. The spoils is what they are after though they come from the labor of the slave that as the admission of States by Congress under the constitution was an act of legislation, and in the nature of a contract or compact between the States admitted and the others admitting, why should not this contract or compact be regarded as of like character with all other civil contracts liable to be rescinded by mutual agreement of both parties? The seceding States have rescinded it on their part, they have resumed their sovereignty. Why cannot the whole question be settled, if the north desire peace, simply by the Congress, in both branches, with the concurrence of the President, giving their consent to the separation, and recognition of our independence?" Stephen gave a speech that would give out the great truth of racial inequality. Even revered Thunderclan generals such as Robert would rather side with his state instead of the nation. And in one lawyer case, even Thunderclan's national bird was under threat.

* * *

Templeton, George's POV

"… the bird of Thunderclan is no longer a bald eagle. The bird of our country is a debilitated chicken disguised in eagle feathers. We have never been a nation; we are only an aggregate of communities ready to fall apart at the first serious shock and without a center of vigorous national life to keep us together." George mewed as he finished his statement. It was clear that the clan was just about ready to crumble as there was no cat to keep it together but one cat knew how to solve it.

* * *

Abraham's POV

**Train Station, Springfield, Illinois**

One cat, watching the crisis unfold knew it would be his job to solve it. Abraham was just about to get on a train to becoming the 16th president of Thunderclan. Soon a small she-cat came up to Abraham, she was about age of kit.

"Hey there, you're ugly, grow a beard or something to hide that face." She mewed. Abraham looked in the mirror as he thought about it.

"Hmm, good idea." Abraham mewed. He soon grunted as he forced some facial fur onto his face as the young she-cat looked at him.

"Meh… still ugly." She soon left as Abraham boarded the train. The train soon left as it was heading to D.C.

With assassination plots already under way, Abraham had to travel to Washington D.C under heavy disguise and protection. Along the way Abraham received stacks of threatening letters. Abraham was in his private compartment as he was reading one of them.

"May the paw of the dark forest strike you down, you're destroying this country, damn you every breath you take, love from, GRANDMA?!" Abraham read the letter before realizing who sent this letter. It was clear he needed to reiterate on what he was going to say.

When Abraham arrived in Washington D.C, he soon got on the podium as he soon spoke. The crowd looked at him wondering what he was going to say in the matter of this.

"No for the last time, I do not want to take away anyone's slaves. I do however, want to preserve the union. In your paws and not in mine is the momentous issue of Civil War. You cannot have any conflict without yourselves being the aggressors. We are not enemies, but friends." Abraham gave his speech out as he wanted to tell them his promise but he wanted to keep things together. It was clear that Abraham was willing to get freaky and open up a can of scat man John if he had to. Whether he had the support of the others was in question.

In the end, it would be the confederates that would fire the first shot.

**[A/N]: A break and another long chapter for you as the war will begin the next chapter as the cats are slowly crumbling. The war is imminent. Keep reading and give me some reviews on how you want this war to go. Let me know on the matter. That is all.**


	9. The beginning of the Civil War

As the south was seceding from the union, they began to take federal union properties around in their country and off the coast of Charleston; South Carolina was one such federal property.

* * *

**April 12****th****, 1861, Fort Sumter, Charleston, South Carolina**

Several tom cats were waiting around in the fort as one of them was carrying a box. Those that wanted to stay in were undersupplied and not the best trained. The cats were mainly gray with some being white.

"When will the next supply ship come in, we won't have any ammunition to hold out in a prolonged skirmish." One of the toms mewed as he was wondering when the next supply ship was coming. Another tom, much older than him took his head down from a newspaper as he was reading it.

"It will come soon, if you decide to be accurate with your shots, then we will be able to survive. So that makes you king." The dark gray tom responded as he went back to reading his newspaper.

"Yeah but we just don't know if we would survive this. Tensions between the north and south have escalated over the past few months as we don't know about this." The first tom responded. He soon took off his blue cap as he looked down. "It might explode into an all-out war and we won't survive. So I won't be king." Soon a third cat came running in, it was the white tom as he knew that there was something going on outside.

"Now you shouldn't be talking, we got company." The white tom cat mewed. The two others got up as they went to go to the top of the fort as they peered out of their positions looking over the harbor. Several brown and ginger cats were looking ahead as they were wearing gray uniforms. They had cannons on the dock overlooking the fort.

"Knock knock, who's there? Us. Hand us over the fort!" One of the brown cats hissed as they had their cannons loaded. The cats at the fort looked over seeing that they had company and that they weren't welcome.

"Uhh, go away!" The cats in the fort hissed. They had no other way to try to scare them off as they were just as scared. The cats on the dock looked at them as the ginger tom, their leader padded to them.

"Hey dorks! Hurry up and surrender!" The tom hissed making a request. The cats inside the fort were looking out as the dark gray tom listed his head to the left overlooking the harbor as they wanted to get this out of the way. He didn't want to give up the fort but at the same time he didn't want to fight in battle.

"Go to heck!" He shouted as he wanted to drive them away. Instead of scaring the tom's the toms became angry as any attempts for a peaceful settlement to the crisis ended when the cats on the docks did this:

"Fire!" The ginger tom shouted. One by one, the cannons let off their shots as the cannonballs soon flew to the fort exploding. The cats thankfully scattered deeper into the fort to fire back. "Heh looks like we scared them away." But he is wrong, soon the cannons from inside the fort fired away as they were beginning to retaliate. The cannons fired at the cats as the cannonballs exploded in the water as their shots had just fallen short. Soon the cats on the port fired again.

The gray tom looked up seeing the cannonballs fly at them as they soon exploded on the fort, the fort was beginning to crumble as chunks of the fort fell off as the cats were now taking the time to reload. Soon they knew they could end this conflict. The cannons from the fort fired as the shots were higher up hoping they would travel farther. The cannonballs soon landed as chunks of the port were destroyed and crumbled into the nearby harbor. The cats on the Harbor looked up as they knew they needed to cripple the fort and take it into their paws. They fired again. In the city, the cats looked out as they were scared about a war breaking out and they were right. The bombardment went on for the rest of the day and into the night as this battle was going to be the first battle of the entire war.

When the sun rose the next morning, the cats on the port looked over to their enemies. They had done a considerable amount of damage and the cats inside had stopped firing a couple hours into the battle. Soon a flag was being raised in the ruins of the fort. It wasn't the traditional Thunderclan flag that was being raised but a plain white flag. It was clear that this was a fight the cats in the fort couldn't win.

"Okay, we give up. Just take the fort will you?" The gray tom mewed as he was exhausted. The cats on the port nodded as they were happy about it.

"Hooray! We won!" The southern cats cheered it was clear to them this could be the end of the war. "All we need is for old Abraham to just sigh and say okay you win." Unbeknownst to them Abraham had a different message in mind.

* * *

Abraham POV

"Fort Sumter has surrendered to the southern cats and they are now becoming aggressive." His cat in cabinet mewed as he outlined the situation. Abraham was ready to take it one step beyond this.

"Those cats are about to get a roundhouse kick to the face." Abraham responded. He knew he had to rally the north together for some volunteers to keep the union together.

Later, Abraham got onto his podium as he wanted to speak for some volunteers and was looking for those that wanted to join his cause.

"WHEREAS the laws of Thunderclan have been, for some time past, and now are opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals by law: Now, therefore, I, Abraham, President of Thunderclan, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth, the militia of the several States of the Union, to the aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, in order to suppress said combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed. The details for this object will be immediately communicated to the State authorities through the War Department I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and the perpetuity of popular government; and to redress wrongs already long enough endured. I deem it proper to say that the first service assigned to the forces hereby called forth will probably be to repossess the forts, places, and property which have been seized from the Union; and in every event, the utmost care will be observed, consistently with the objects aforesaid, to avoid any devastation, any destruction of, or interference with, property, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens in any part of the country. And I hereby command the persons composing the combinations aforesaid to disperse, and retire peaceably to their respective abodes within twenty days from this date. Deeming that the present condition of public affairs presents an extraordinary occasion, I do hereby, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution, convene both Houses of Congress. Senators and Representatives are therefore summoned to assemble at their respective chambers, at twelve o'clock, noon, on Thursdays the fourth day of July next, then and there to consider and determine such measures as, in their wisdom, the public safety and interest may seem to demand." Abraham mewed as he wanted some 75,000 volunteers to help with his cause and in a matter of months, the cats would sign up in droves, hopeful for some adventure and some good old fashion. F. U. N.

* * *

Jefferson's POV

In the new confederate capitol of Richmond, Virginia, the confederate president and his cheekbones went to the podium to make a speech.

"Seeing how the situation between the north and the south is becoming increasingly violent and since we found the call that volunteers were being called out, we need some volunteers of our own and I am calling out for 100,000 volunteers to help fight in this war and we should be able to force the north into peace by the time the year is over. We need all the southern support that we need." Jefferson mewed as he was confident that he wanted to put up a fight but for the others, they weren't very sure about this. The cats in the south cheered as that he and Abraham wanted a quick end to the conflict.

* * *

Unknown POV

A column of northern cats were marching as they were the first of freshly mobilized forces of volunteers as they soon marched along.

"Is it over yet? One of the volunteers asked as he marched along. The others were following along as the leader turned his head.

"No Jimmy, it's only been one week." He responded as they kept marching along.

"Is it over now?" He asked again. The cat on the horse turned his head back.

"NO!" He hissed as he wanted him quiet.

"How about now?" The same cat asked at this point, he was getting on his commander's nerves.

"If you ask that one more time, I swear I will turn this army around and you'll all have to go back home to your wives and children!" He shouted. The others cheered in his response as they liked his way of speaking.

* * *

Mapleshade's POV

Mapleshade was looking through the mail as she was now taking home with the government as part of trying to make her more of a southerner thinking Appledusk turned her mentality to mush. She saw the letter as it was in blue. Patch walked over as he was still in school.

"Mom what's wrong?" Patch asked as he was wondering about it. Mapleshade turned to Patch.

"It's the confederate army, they want me." Mapleshade mewed. She turned to Patch as she puts her paws on him.

"When you graduate this June, don't try taking any advanced education, you're in charge of the household now and the responsibility rests on you, I promise I will be back as soon as possible." Mapleshade responded. She turned as she walked off as she was beginning to weep. She knew she had to say goodbye to her kits as she went to go find the nearest office to sign herself up.

Mapleshade walked along in the city as she spotted the same two cats with one of their slaves as they were discussing on how to decide on how to do this. The south knew they were facing a challenge with the north.

"How do we expect to win with a population of only 5 million against 22 million in the north?" He asked as he was wondering. His slave turned to him as he spoke.

"If you decide to count us 4 million slaves, you had 9 million." The slave responded if they fought they would have a huge bolster to their numbers. Seeing how it was he knew that he wanted to take action.

"Great idea! Hand these rifles out to all the… Wait a minute." He soon paused as he knew that slaves weren't allowed to fight as he soon knew that these numbers weren't going to be much at all. "You almost had me there." Mapleshade looked on as she continued walking as she knew she was signing up for a war that would change her life.

* * *

Abraham POV

Abraham was facing two big problems for himself and his army. First off, his army and cabinet already didn't have much respect for him and many of his top generals were getting old and were being too cautious for his liking.

"I need a nap." One of the generals yawned. The others looked at him.

"Tell me about it." The other responded. Soon a very large tom came in, it was Winfield. He was a veteran of the Thunderclan-Mexican war and by this point he was too fat to even properly mount a horse. Abraham looked at his generals as they were trying to decide on their course of action on what their plans would be.

"Okay chaps, we need to come up with a plan, hit me." Abraham told his generals on what plan they should do. Winfield spoke first.

"We can wait for the Confederates to come and apologize." Winfield responded as he wanted to hold back.

"Maybe we should all sit in a circle to discuss our feelings." Another tom responded as he wanted to speak about it.

"Crossing the Delaware River into New Jersey worked for me." George Washington responded. Abraham looked at them as he knew that this was all bad ideas.

"Those are all terrible ideas." Abraham responded as he knew those ideas would get them nowhere. He soon turned his head to George Washington. "And you… wrong fanfiction."

"Hey I'm the greatest president in the history of this nation." George Washington spoke as he knew he was one of the cats that truly shaped Thunderclan.

"Yeah, we'll see about that dingus." Abraham responded as he wanted to give a challenge to the president.

Eventually, the generals came up with a multi prong strategy, a great anaconda will come from the sea, wrap around the south and starve it of supplies, second, taking control of the Mississippi river would severe the South's economic artery while splitting it in two, and lastly a main union force would march south taking the capitol of Richmond, Virginia, ending the war. Batta-boom. Batta-bing!

**[A/N]: Now we're getting somewhere as we are ready to begin the war. We still need those views and reviews since I find that this story really isn't all that popular and we need it to be to gather some more momentum. We definitely need the attention more than ever since I still want to break new ground, so let's keep the ball rolling since we've sadly came to a standstill. That is all. Bye.**


	10. The first battle of Bull Run

Across the country, skirmishes were beginning to break out across the country as the main force began to move down south towards Richmond. It was clear that the cats leading it were about to begin the first major battle of the civil war. The first battle of Bull Run.

* * *

Mapleshade's POV

**July 21****st****, 1861, Manassas, Prince William County, Virginia**

Mapleshade arrived as she was dressed in her gray uniform holding out her new Springfield musket. She along with many others arrived by rail quickly as the Union forces were slowly arriving. Although both sides were equal in terms of numbers, they were also equal in terms of experience, most of the troops had little to no training and they didn't know what to do. Mapleshade was a veteran as she soon stood there in formation.

"The artillery had been firing for hours but since those northerners have the same amount of experience as we do, they aren't very accurate." One of the leaders mewed as he rode his horse. They looked out seeing the union forces arrive as their enemies were shocked to see they were facing a huge army. The union cats looked at them as they saw the army.

"It was they were almost waiting for us, how did they know?" The leader of the union forces asked as he was looking out among the crowd of cats. As it turned out, spies in D.C had told the Confederates about their forces. His junior officer turned to him.

"Did you use Nord VPN?" He asked him. The senior officer turned to him wondering what the in the Dark forest was something like this.

"What the hell is Nord VPN?" The senior tom asked wondering what something was like that. The junior tom turned to him.

"I'm so glad you asked." He soon decided to turn to the audience that was still reading this fanfiction yet not give the author a review. "Do you use the internet? Huh, me too! Do you like internet safety? Huh, me too! Hey we should hang out sometime so I can tell you about Nord VPN. Nord VPN has over 5,000 secure and super-fast servers in 60 countries that allow you to surf the net safely. With that personal data logging. Not only does it help you stay secure, but with just a click of a button you can take a quick trip to Sweden and enjoy some Nordic crime dramas. Is there some amazing content on YouTube that's still blocked in your country? Not to fear Nord VPN is here. Nord VPN gives you access to all of these amazing features and it has a 30-day money-back guarantee .So click the link in the description below Nord VPN com, slash, oversimplified and use promo code oversimplified to get 70 off an annual subscription. That's only 3.49 a month plus an additional month for free again, that's Nord VPN, com, slash oversimplified and, as always, you'll be supporting The Oversimplified channel. So thank you now. Where were we? Oh yeah secession, fat man, and the union invasion into Virginia." The Junior tom mewed as Mapleshade shouted out from pure boredom.

"Can we just get to the battle already? The audience is getting bored, we just want to fight!" The cats soon looked at each other as the union cats charged out after them. Mapleshade felt tense as the cats were running at them in rows. Then Mapleshade and the others fired. Most of their shots missed as they were able to strike down a few of them but it wasn't enough. They continued to run out after them. Mapleshade and her fellow soldiers soon got ready for a melee fight since it would take 20 seconds to reload a musket and judging the soldiers, there simply wasn't enough time for that. They soon got close as Mapleshade swing the butt of her musket striking down a fellow union troop as more continued to pour across. Some even fired at her fellow allies as the generals charged out trying to strike down some of the enemy troops. However, it was no use as they were simply outnumbered.

"There is no way we can hold the line, retreat! Retreat!" The general shouted as the cats began to retreat to a much better defendable position. The cats in the blue uniforms saw their gray counterparts fall back as they decided to pursue them.

Mapleshade and the others soon got to another area as some of the fellow cats from both sides were picnicking up on the nearby hills. Mapleshade sighed as she reloaded her musket seeing the opportunity. Soon the union cats charged out again as they were determined to finishing her off. Mapleshade got ready as their general was there. Soon they got themselves ready as they fired off again. Mapleshade's bullet struck the tom in his leg but she didn't have time to reload plus most of their shots missed again. It seemed the enemy was really mad at them as they ran in. Mapleshade soon got the butt of the rifle ready as she wanted to defend herself. The cats closed the distance between themselves as Mapleshade swung the rifle knocking one of the cats back as another one charged in as he wanted to take her out. Mapleshade used the rifle to block his attack as she kicked him away from her. Mapleshade soon began to retreat as the explosions were going off with both sides firing at each other some of the cats picnicking on the nearby hill were watching this as they were delighted to see this.

"Michael Bay, eat your heart out." A young she-cat mewed as she was enjoying the frenzy of the slaughter. The confederates were losing this battle as they needed a miracle to help them win. But with all the cannon fire was mostly disorganized as some of the cannon balls were flying into the houses of nearby farm families.

* * *

Wilmer's POV

One of those farm families was a cat by the name of Wilmer who's family were getting caught up in the fighting. He knew he had to get them out of there to make sure they don't suffer to the slaughter.

"Hurry up Martha! There's a war out here!" Wilmer shouted as his mate was the only one still in the house as he was just itching to get out. Martha's head popped out of the window as she shouted.

"THE MORE YOU TELL ME TO HURRY UP, THE SLOWER I WILL GO!" Martha shouted back at Wilmer. Soon a cannonball slammed into the corner of their house exploding. It was enough to send them running.

* * *

Thomas' POV

A Dark brown tom was called in with a good chunk of his army and with that he had about 10 cannons with him. Some of the rag tag survivors coming in from the south were running in as they were terrified. They were losing and they were scrambling up the hill. Mapleshade was among them in the crowd.

"Woah, slow down, what is happening?" Thomas asked as he twirled his paw through his beard. Mapleshade stopped as she spoke.

"The union forces pushed us back twice and we don't want to give the path to the capitol up and then they would be able to win. If you have a trick in your sleeves, we need this victory." Mapleshade pleaded wondering if he had any idea on what to do next. Thomas looked at Mapleshade for a moment before he spoke.

"Don't worry. We have the cannons and I will be there to make sure we stand together like a wall. Your previous leaders weren't as good as they were like rubber. We must hold firm." Thomas mewed. Soon the cats decided to take the opportunity to reload as the union cats were seen below trying to charge their way up. Thomas saw the opportunity as they had the high ground; he soon turned to his cats. "Listen up. We are holding this position to the best of our ability. No one retreats, we are not falling back today as we are only going forward. Prepare to fire away at my mark. Open the cannons up!" Thomas gave the order. Soon the 10 cannons opened up on the charging Union cats below. The cats below saw the cannonballs as they began exploding as it sent cats flying as well as tearing their limbs. As many as 3 cats at once were being cut down from the cannons. The cannons decided to take the time to reload as the cats continued to charge up the hill.

Mapleshade was getting nervous as she was tensing up for the battle. She wasn't going to fire without Thomas' command. He stood there like a stonewall observing their movements and seeing how they were close. He knew now was the time to open up.

"Open fire!" Thomas shouted. Mapleshade nodded as she and the others fired their muskets down at the charging union cats. They seem to have more luck this time as the bullets struck down more union cats than before. They soon decided to reload as the cannons opened fire again trying to soften up their positions before the others could fire. Once they finished reloading, they soon pointed their rifles down at the charging cats and fired again. They really were having more luck as the cats were struggling up the hill. They decided to reload as the cannons fired again. Once they were done, they fired again as it was just enough to send them into a retreat. For the union cats, it was their turn to retreat. Mapleshade knew they had them on the run and they were deciding their next move.

"What do we do now?" Mapleshade asked as she saw the union army was no on the run. Thomas gave it some though as he rubbed his beard. He soon got a brilliant idea.

"Chase them down and finish them off." Thomas ordered them. Mapleshade nodded as she and the others reloaded. Soon Thomas gave the signal to charge down and finish those cats off as they soon began to pour down the hill. The Union cats were at the bottom as they were reloading and reorganizing their forces. They soon saw Mapleshade and her friends were charging down from the hill as the Union cats were scrambling to get themselves ready. Soon Mapleshade saw them as they got themselves into position. They soon fired their musket volley into the gray uniformed cats but the volley was mostly ineffective as only a couple of cats were hit. They soon got ready as they pointed their bayonets at them. Mapleshade saw this as she veered to the left wanting to get a flank around as the rest of them crashed into the force firing their muskets on the move striking down many of the union cats before fully engaging into the melee fight Mapleshade fired her musket striking down a union cat before tackling the one next to her down. She swung the rifled around beating the cat down as another one prepared to fire but something took him down instead as the cats were soon decimating the union forces. Soon it was too much for them as the union forces began to retreat. Mapleshade panted as she looked over the bodies of wounded and dead. Thomas rode down from the hill on his horse as he looked at her surprised. "Missy I didn't get your name, you definitely fought bravely in that battle and you caused those union cats to retreat back to their capitol and I would like to ask, want to be my sharp shooter?" Thomas asked as he was impressed by the she-cats work. Mapleshade looked at him as she spoke.

"Mapleshade and I'm more than willing to and your name?" Mapleshade formally introduced herself. The brown tom looked at her as he got off his horse.

"Name's Thomas and thanks for the bravery you showed today. I will take you back into camp to help us decide our next move." Thomas went over have he helped Mapleshade onto his horse as he got on too. They soon began riding off to their makeshift camp where their army was being held.

* * *

Abraham's POV

Abraham was reading some books as he was deciding on what to do with his next laws. He was hoping his volunteers would put the confederates on the run but a cat soon came in as he wanted to speak to Lincoln directly.

"Abraham my president, General Thomas whipped us so hard; the confederates are calling him Stonewall Jackson." The advisor told Abraham. Abraham was confused about this so he decided to ask.

"Oh so that's why they're calling him that? Not because he looked like he ran face first into a stonewall?" Abraham asked holding up a picture of the cat he was talking about, His advisor looked at it.

"Apparently not." He responded. Soon a She-cat came running in as she also had some news. The first cat left giving her full attention for the president.

"President Abraham, we just lost the first major battle out west by Wilson's creek giving up southwest Missouri pushing us to Fort Lexington. We need to turn this around." She mewed. Abraham got the news as he wanted to get this war going seeing that the confederates were already one step ahead of him. He needed to get ahead of the Confederates.

**[A/N]: First major battle of the war and the confederates have two victories behind them, will Abraham be able to push them back and start inflicting defeats or will he begin facing the prospect that he will not win this war. Let me know if you want to begin seeing this go in this direction.**

**Also the fake advertisement is meant to be a joke and probably won't work so don't try that but still try finding anything related to Oversimplified I can use.**

**Also I have a bit of a confession to make. The reason why we're getting nowhere is because of the Coronavirus and everyone might be too sick to read this. To all the people sick with this horrible sickness, I hope you feel better so you can read it. We're just past 50 views and we're still getting nowhere. And since the schools are being closed, this could go either way since we might get more traffic while at the same time get less. Just letting you know and I hope I don't get it myself. See you next chapter though.**


	11. Two forts, Two rivers

A black northern tom walked up to the enlisting table as he wanted to speak with the white cats running. He was a free cat but he knew that he wanted to sign up.

"Sir, I wish to sign up for the Thunderclan union." The black cat asked as he wanted to fight for this country. Soon the white cat looked at him as he responded.

"Sorry, no can do." The white tom responded. A second black cat that was watching this knew that this couldn't go on for any longer. Why was the northern army not enlisting free black cats? This cat's name was Frederick. And he wanted to speak to Abraham front and center about the issue.

* * *

Abraham's POV

**November 3****rd****, 1861, Washington D.C. Abraham's Office.**

Abraham heard a knocking as he looked at some papers as it was clear that his northern volunteers were struggling Abraham soon heard the knocking again as he looked up.

"Come in." Abraham spoke. Frederick entered the room as he had a stern look across his muzzle.

"You sir, mister president, how come you're not enlisting free black cats in the north?" Frederick hissed as he was wondering on why he wasn't letting them sign up. Abraham looked at Frederick as he responded.

"We are hoping for a quick end to the conflict as we are just preserving the union." Abraham told him as he wanted to hopefully, have a quick end to the conflict. Frederick was still mad about this.

"Mister president, it's time you make the war about emancipation." Frederick told him as he was getting angry with him. Abraham was being a bit cautious about his choices.

"Hmm, I don't want to ruffle any feathers." Abraham mewed as he didn't want to get too gritty and hope for a quick end to the conflict.

"The feathers are already RUFFLED!" Frederick shouted. Abraham was still hoping for a quick end to the conflict. He soon turned as he wanted to speak.

"Okay any escaped slaves from the south will be held as enemy contraband and we will put them to work bolstering our infrastructure and our supply lines. I think I need to get a new general to help lead the army of the Potomac." Abraham soon shook Frederick's paw as he exited the room. Abraham knew he wanted Frederick to keep in touch with him. Frederick shook Abraham's paw as he left.

Abraham to the southern sympathizers were doing things that would be "impeachable" his administration suppressed the free media to the south. Some southern sympathizers were arrested without a trial and his criticizers began accusing Abraham of being a tyrant. But to quote Abraham himself: Hey, its war baby, what are you going to do?

To get the war going, Abraham decided to hire young general McClellan to lead the army of the Potomac. And McClellan began training up the army of the union.

* * *

McClellan, George's POV

A bushy white tom looked out to the cats in the blue uniforms performing; they were getting better with their shots and getting themselves into shape his eyes looking out ahead to them.

"Looking good!" George mewed. He continued walking. McClellan knew he was going to be the country's great savior and him, like many others didn't approve with the president's handing of the war. McClellan thought a lot of himself however and that would lead to making some pretty big mistakes.

Abraham was at McClellan's house that night and he just kept waiting for him. And when McClellan returned home that night, McClellan opened the door as he went in and closed it. Not bothering to see Abraham at all and straight up going to bed. Now that's what I call disrespectful.

McClellan could talk the talk but could he walk the walk? No. Like the other generals that Abraham had under his belt, McClellan was maddeningly cautious.

"I'm the best." George chanted to himself. He soon tripped on Abraham's paw as he looked up seeing Abraham right there.

"Hey General McClellan? Could you move south to attack the enemy?" Abraham asked wondering if he was up for the task. McClellan looked at him as he was nervous about that command.

"What are you crazy? What if they have a big scary army down there?" George asked wondering if it was clear that he should move south and attack. Abraham looked at the bushy white tom as he spoke.

"They probably do." Abraham decided to put his input into this. McClellan then shouted at Abraham with frustration.

"What?! OH MY GOSH!" George Shouted. McClellan knew that he didn't have the numbers he needed to fight effectively. He looked at the thousands of cats he had at his disposal. "THIS IS NOT ENOUGH!" George shouted. He soon turned to Abraham. "What if they have like 10,000 cats down there?" Abraham looked at him as he wanted to give him additional cats.

"Okay you can have 20,000." Abraham spoke but McClellan knew that wasn't enough.

"What if they have 30,000? I'll need 40." George spoke out. Abraham knew 40,000 couldn't hurt.

"Okay you can have 40." Abraham mewed as he wanted 40,000 at his disposal McClellan knew it wasn't enough.

"What if they have 50? I'll need 60!" George shouted and at this point Abraham has had enough with McClellan, he slapped his own face with his paw as he knew it was getting nowhere and his work was all in vain. McClellan wouldn't make a move for the rest of the year.

* * *

Ulysses POV

Thunderclan's one saving grace for now was a general fighting out west in Kentucky and Tennessee. A broad shouldered tabby was sitting in his tent as he remained calm. In his paw was a bottle of whiskey, his favorite. He taking sips of it with some fellow friends as he they were discussing strategy on taking the two forts along the rivers to help them move south. One of the toms moved in as it was his staff.

"General Grant, did you come up with a plan yet? One of his staff members asked. Ulysses looked at him as he was a little dizzy. The cat soon sniffed something as he smelled the smell that Ulysses shouldn't have had. "Do I smell whiskey?" He soon looked around seeing a whiskey bottle among the mess as he wanted to figure out what was going on. He soon found a partially empty bottle of whiskey as he looked at Ulysses. "You really need to stop drinking you drunk." He soon took the bottle away as the other toms came along with him.

"Found the whiskey on him. He's getting bored with the stores that we have and he's non-stop drinking it. I think it's time we try getting him to do something else other than drink." One of the cats mewed as he walked along with his friend. The other cat turned to his friend as he wanted to speak out about it.

"It looks like Ulysses or we like to call him General Grant especially while sober or drunk looks like he is determined to drive his head through a brick wall and is about to do it." He responded. It was clear his words were true as he cat definitely had the look of determination to do it and they were praying he was right and it would all go according to plan.

Ulysses was arriving at the first fort on an Ironclad the next morning and it was clear that the first army had beaten him to it. Some of the cats looking over saw him as they wanted to speak.

**February 6****th****, 1862, Fort Henry, Tenneessee**

"Hey General Grant, you missed it, the confederates surrendered Fort Henry and it's time we begin the preparation of moving south. We still got another fort to take before we take northern Tennessee. So we better move." The tom mewed as the garrison at Fort Henry had already surrendered and now they were ready to move. Ulysses nodded as they soon packed and prepared to move. Getting on his horse, he soon moved with his troops. The long journey encompassed the whole day and they were forced to set up camp at the next fort three days later and he was waiting for the Ironclad to help level out the fort. The Ironclad fired away as it want to damage the fort from the side as well as securing a tight grip over the entrances and escape routes so they couldn't break out and would have to surrender. The Ironclad was sailing back as its crew came up to Ulysses.

"General, the Ironclad has sustained a lot of damage from the batteries of the fort. There is a possibility of the Confederates escaping. They knew they had to hold the line.

"Well keep a look out for when they try to break out and make their escape. I don't want them to be leaving our territory any time soon." Ulysses responded as he wanted this mission of capturing the second fort to go smoothly. He soon rode out on his horse as he wanted to get another jump on these troops.

The attack began in the north east as the confederates planned to make their escape Ulysses was on patrol when it happened as the shots from the fort fired at the disorganized troops. It was clear they wanted to break out from the defenses. The troops soon began to overrun the northern sections of the area as Ulysses and his army came in. They soon galloped into back with their horses while the troops on the ground fired their muskets at the defenders. Ulysses rode ahead as he whipped out his saber and his revolver. He soon shot a defender down with the revolver as he swung the saber around slicing through a cat before charging in ramming the saber deep into the cat's side. The forces knew they couldn't hold out as they knew they were forced into a retreat. Ulysses knew that the cats in the fort would prepare to try to defend but there was no point in trying to take the fort so the only logical thing to do was hold out and wait for them to surrender. However, it would be the next morning before they decided to give up.

The sun rose up the next morning as Ulysses was walking around in his tent wondering when the fort would collapse. A cat came running in as he wanted to speak with Ulysses immediately. Ulysses was talking to himself.

"Why does Stonewall Jackson get a cool nickname and I don't, I want a cool nickname." Ulysses mewed to his staff. Soon the cat came running in to his tent.

"Sir, the cats at Fort Donelson want to surrender and want to know your terms." The cat mewed to Ulysses. Ulysses turned to the cat who was wishing to speak to him.

"No terms except and unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works." Ulysses responded as he wanted these cats to move the others nodded as they prepared to carry out the final preparation of the plan when Ulysses realized something. "Hey Unconditional Surrender Grant, that's a pretty cool nick name, right toms, Right?" The others turned and began to walk away.

"Yeah also some of your troops froze to death in the snowstorm that had happened and we should head south to find warmer weather, I hope you know that." The tom also left as the 2nd fort of their objectives was finally taken. With the help of some Ironclads on the river, Ulysses and his army began moving south.

Despite the victory, it took the rest of the month to reach Nashville and when they arrived, it was clear that they evacuated. They decided to guess the confederates didn't want to stick around. With that they knew they could launch their invasion of Tennessee and work their way down the state to finally take hold of the Mississippi river. They decided to give out the message to the president:

_To the president of Thunderclan:_

_ With the victories of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, it was clear that the path to Nashville was open and we found it completely abandoned. Around 15,000 confederates were killed, wounded or captured while a few of ours were killed. We managed to score the first victory of the war so far. If we continued to get properly supplied, we will continue the march south to take the rest of the western half of Tennessee and work our way down the Mississippi river and when the entire river has been taken, we will have their forces split in two and there would be no way with the blockade at sea and with no bridges to cross, they could get reinforcements and supplies to across the river. They will be stuck there._

_Hope to score more victories in the near future, General, Grant, Ulysses._

Even with their first major victory in the west, they were still having little luck in the east. With McClellan not making a move and with the Confederate generals in the east fighting hard, the east had become a stalemate. However the Confederates were going to get ready to throw their full weight at the west as they continued their march south.

The next target will be: Shiloh.

* * *

**[A/N]: Hope that is enough for you since it took me a bit to write this and we're slowly getting some traction now and an introduction to Ulysses, the cat that would fit the $50 bill. The next chapter will be about Ulysses again as Mapleshade and her friends wouldn't be mentioned until the chapter after that. Might give the other generals the spotlight as I want to use Robert again since he shouldn't have a little appearance in chapter 6 I believe, he needs more time in the spotlight. Well I'll see you all in Shiloh when the first bloody battle would take place.**

**Also on another note, who would make a better general for the war? Grant or McClellan? Let me know so who I can give more ridicule on? I really want to hear your opinions on this so I can decide on the future on what battles should be. I think I've bored you enough so study the chapters to see where you want this to go. That is all.**


	12. Battle of Shiloh

Abraham hadn't been feeling like his best as he was very tired. He had been pardoning deserters death sentences, his cabinet did nothing bicker and most of his generals did nothing during the war. But worst of all, personal tragedy struck.

Abraham's wife Mary, a pretty snowy white she-cat padded along as she was sobbing in tears. The doctor was carrying a body out as he knew something was wrong. The doctor walked over to the president.

"President Abraham, your son Willie, sadly passed away from Typhoid fever." The doctor announced. Abraham loved his son Willie to death and now seeing he was gone. He needed some time to himself. He soon got up and walked away. He soon decided to sit in his room alone as he knew he had to get his act together. He knew he didn't want to break into tears like his wife but he had to figure out how to get his family together. He soon came up with a thought: If I can hold my family together, then I can hold the nation of Thunderclan together. And I will start now and I have had it with McClellan's silence!

After Willie's funeral, the family knew it was best to move on and Abraham kept his composure through it. He needed to go and find General McClellan. He soon found him who was busy flipping a glass bottle to see if it would land on top. The bottle landed on the table horizontally and wasn't upright. Abraham was watching him as he waited for him to be free.

"Dang it." George sighed. Soon Abraham wanted to talk to him straight.

"Okay General McClellan, I firmly order you as the president to move south and attack the enemy. If you have a plan, let me know!" Abraham shouted at his most cautious general out of them all. McClellan was caught off guard by his orders as he turned to face Abraham.

"We actually have plans of attacking Richmond from the southeast by the Peninsula. If we can have some ships we can take the capitol." McClellan explained his plan to Abraham. Abraham was desperate for a plan that would work and he was ready to bargain with him.

"Yes. Anything." Abraham responded. The plan was for McClellan to move southward as he would take about 100,000 cats with him. Lincoln held onto some of the force to defend Washington D.C. from a nearby Stonewall Jackson and Mapleshade wreaking havoc in the near-by Shenandoah Valley McClellan landed on the Peninsula at Fort Monroe as he moved inland. There he was halted outside by a confederate force outside of Yorktown as McClellan was looking at it.

"It's the biggest army I've ever seen." George mewed with astonishment. However it was completely fake as McClellan had a much bigger army than the confederates did.

"You still outnumber them General McClellan, move forward." One of his advisors mewed to him. McClellan turned to his face as he looked at him.

"No." McClellan responded. He was ready to dig in and settle in for a siege.

* * *

Ulysses' POV

Ulysses had been steadily heading south during all of this time as his plans was to take the territory along the Mississippi river. He was fortunate to face very little opposition as he was getting closer to Memphis. He of course had to stop for the night as he wanted to settle down after the long journey.

"Okay we keep moving tomorrow. I want to cross into the next state. It's time for whiskey in the meantime." Ulysses announced as they had moved their camp further south. Now it was time to unpack and begin setting up the camp as they had their goals to keep moving. When setting up the camp. Another cat rode out on a horse as he wanted to meet up with Ulysses.

"I see you're off to take the river, I was given such a task." A voice called out. The cat soon dismounted his horse as he walked up to Ulysses. This tom cat was a brown tom with bright amber eyes. He was skilled with horses as he walked up to Ulysses.

"Oh never saw you there. I'm Ulysses or call me General Grant if you wish." Ulysses introduced himself the smaller tom turned as he soon spoke.

"My name's William or General Sherman if you wish." William spoke. Ulysses laughed as he soon headed to his tent with Sherman following him.

"Nice to meet you and we're getting ready to advance southward tomorrow, I was hoping you would help us with the move." Ulysses responded. Sherman looked at the general as he knew that he could trust him. Ulysses poured himself some whiskey shots to enjoy. "Might as well enjoy yourself while you're here." Sherman took the shot glass as he drank it. It was clear that he didn't have anything to drink.

"That was refreshing. My group is unpacking and we're preparing to keep moving south." Sherman responded. Ulysses nodded as he knew he had a friend to rely on. The two of them continued to chat about their experiences, how they got there and what they had in mind. However this one day would be the test of the entire army staged in this area.

* * *

Sherman, William's POV

**April 6****th****, 1862, Shiloh, Tennessee**

It was particularly foggy that morning as I was leading a force along the eastern side of the forest; it was a mixed force as we were heading along. We soon heard a noise as we all crouched down for cover.

"Do you hear something General Sherman?" One of the lesser ranked officers asked. The brown tom turned his head as he didn't remember if he heard anything other than their paw steps. William turned his head.

"No that is why I am suspicious." William responded. Soon the blue uniformed cats soon decided to drop down into a crouch as they all lined up their rifles as they were ready to fire. William drew his revolver and Cavalry saber. The noise was heard again as horses were beginning to pound their way through. It was a scouting force of confederates, a few horses and their owners. Soon the cats opened their rifles up as they tore down the cavalry scouts. Seeing how they used up their shot, they reloaded as they prepared to attack if they were charged at. The cats couldn't really see well with the fog as they looked around some more. Soon a whole wave of gray uniformed cats came from the fog as they charged out determined to strike at them while they were still reloading but it was clear they were too late. William knew that he had to hold his ground and fight this battle out. "Cats of Thunderclan, the enemy is upon us. We will not retreat we will not pause. We will fight to the every end; we only fall back if we cannot hold effectively. Now get ready. Fire!" William gave his statement as he gave the command to fire, the cats soon unloaded their muskets into the charging Confederates. The gray uniformed cats were being cut down as musket balls strike at their bodies but they still kept charging. The cats knew they had to reload before firing again so they began to reload as fast as possible. Soon they looked out seeing the enemy getting closer and closer firing their muskets off in retaliation. Those that reloaded the fastest, fired in a disorganized fashion, the gray cats were being cut down individually instead of a whole row going down. William fired the revolver at the charging enemy to see if he could get some of them to go down. They just kept coming. Where were they coming from? William knew he couldn't hold the line effectively as the enemy was now flanking around and would have him encircled.

"Sir we're getting reports that other units are under attack and the front line cannot hold. We have to fall back." Some of the messengers from other units rode out to notify William. He soon looked as the individual firing continued on as it was clear that this line wasn't going to be properly held as he soon turned to his unit.

"Fall back to camp. We can't hold." William announced soon the others nodded as they began to retreat. Some decided to stay behind to allow their unit to escape as they quickly withdrew from the area. Along the other sections, the Confederates were rushing through the gaps as they were quickly overcoming the area. Soon the units were falling back to camp with some setting up secondary perimeters to keep the fighting going. It was clear that there was no way they would hold the forest. They fell back.

* * *

Ulysses' POV

Ulysses was busy inspecting the camp's defenses as it was clear he wanted to use this area as a defensive staging area as well as a resupply area for his Ironclads. Two Ironclads were there as the two ships headed up the river. Soon William looked out to see some cat coming. It was William and he was in a state of panic. His forces were loosely organized and they were scattered.

"General Sherman, you seem to be frightened, is there something wrong? Ulysses asked his friend. William rode up to his friend as he replied with some state of panic.

"Yes. The Confederates, they're coming and we just got pushed back." William responded as the other generals and their forces arrived.

"Yeah we got the news, Sherman's right, they ran between the gaps in the units and they are preparing to take the camp we need to hold the group together." One of the other general responded. Ulysses knew he had to keep the group together as he wanted to play this defensively and hold the enemy army off long enough to send them back running. Ulysses spoke.

"Okay, I have an idea. Tell the Ironclads to stay put and provide us with some cover fire. The cavalry would flank around to attack their behind and the infantry will stay behind in the camp with the artillery to hold them off." Ulysses drew up the plans. "Even though the Confederates are so far winning, they are running straight into a hornets nest." Ulysses went to his horse as he got on it. He, William and the other cavalry decided to head into the nearby underbrush as they were beginning to set their defenses up. Soon a cat peeked out seeing the Confederates about a half a mile away running straight into their onslaught. Soon the cannons and the two Ironclads opened their artillery up as the cannonballs began exploding when they landed. The gray uniformed cats were starting to get cut down as they were rushing into the artillery and ironclad fire. Plus with the sun beginning to set, it was clear that the battle wasn't going to last for much longer in the day. Still the Confederates pressed onward. The cats soon opened the muskets as they were helping by finishing off the weaker thin lines as the cats continued to charge forward. Soon the Cavalry came out as it began galloping forward from the brush. The cats turned as they saw Ulysses and William charge in slicing them open with their sabers. Soon the situation became untenable for the Confederates as they were being cut down.

"It's no use, we need to withdraw!" One of the cats shouted. Soon they decided to turn as they run. Ulysses looked at he saw that the enemy was withdrawing from the area. He soon nodded as he knew this defense was successful. The two ironclads Lexington and Tyler decided to turn their guns to continue bombarding the Confederates throughout the night.

"They really lost their nerve when the artillery came down like thunder." William spoke as Ulysses looked at him and then up at the clouds.

"Speaking of Thunder, take the wounded into the camp as they will be our prisoners." Ulysses gave the order as they would take all the wounded they could find and tend to them. The bloodiest battle so far was only on its first day as the rain began to come down to wash the bodies away. Ulysses soon grabbed his personal book as he wrote this:

_During the night rain fell in torrents and our troops were exposed to the storm without shelter. I made my headquarters under a tree a few hundred yards back from the river bank. My ankle was so much swollen from the fall of my horse the Friday night preceding, and the bruise was so painful, that I could get no rest. The drenching rain would have precluded the possibility of sleep without this additional cause. Sometime after midnight, growing restive under the storm and the continuous pain, I moved back to the log house under the bank. This had been taken as a hospital, and all night wounded men were being brought in, their wounds dressed, a leg or an arm amputated as the case might require, and everything being done to save life or alleviate suffering. The sight was more unendurable than encountering the enemy's fire, and I returned to my tree in the rain._

The Confederates were worse off than the union as they had to deal with the ironclads as well as the storm and the cries from wounded and dying cats. The storm would leave both sides with little rest considering the next day that the Union was going to counter attack.

The next morning rose as it was the Union's turn to begin the attack. It was still as foggy as yesterday but there wasn't going to be any storms coming their way. Generals Sherman and Grant were heading southward the forest was still laced with fog so they had to watch their steps. Sherman looked over to his cavalry.

"You search around this area, we'll wait here for the news." William ordered some cavalry to check out the surrounding area. The cavalry spit off to check the forest for any sign of the confederates. Ulysses and William waited as they wanted the reports of the cavalry. The minutes ticked by as it was clear the generals were beginning to get antsy. Soon the cavalry returned after 10 minutes have past as they were clearly spooked.

"Yeah they got some of a force back there. Not as much as yesterday since we cut some of them down but we need to be careful." One of the scouts mewed to the generals. Soon the troops began to charge straight through the fog to where the confederate force was. Soon the Cavalry went around as they were to flank the forces and have the troops disorganized.

The confederates had much lower morale than yesterday considering they had lost so many of their own cats charging into a hornets nest and were forced to retreat, they were tired and most of their stores were destroyed by the ironclads on the river. The cats looked out seeing the blue uniformed cats race through the fog as they opened up. The gray uniformed cats responded by cutting down a row of the blue uniformed enemies but they were starting to get cut down themselves as their enemies shot much more accurately than they did and the worst part was going to come. Grant and Sherman appeared from the sides as they drew their sabers out charging headfirst into the onslaught while the gray uniformed cats were reloading. They were helpless as they felt the sabers slice through their lines but it was clear when they turned around, they saw the bayonets from the muskets drive deep into their chests. Some pulled out the bayonets as they were dripping with blood as they were hungry for more. Some reloaded while others charged out to take more of them. Sherman and Grant were overlooking as the confederates were beginning to melt away in the underbrush as it was clear they had dealt a serious blow to them. It was only a matter of time before their camp was captured.

"Let's hope they don't try going through with this and counter attack us. We should send local formations to finish them off." William responded as Ulysses nodded. They soon rode off as the later that day the Confederate camp was captured as they tried to put up some resistance but ultimately failed. Despite his victory, Ulysses found himself under fire.

* * *

Abraham's POV

Abraham was reading some papers as several general cats came in as they were very angry about the whole thing. They looked at the president as they wanted to make a request.

"You have to get rid of General Grant." They requested. Abraham looked up wondering why they wanted him to do such a thing. Abraham soon spoke.

"Why didn't General Grant win?" Abraham asked wondering how effective Ulysses was at leading. The generals soon responded as he asked him the question.

"Yes but he just threw our cats at the enemy." The Generals responded as they had taken 10,000 losses in that one battle alone. Abraham looked at them.

"Isn't that the point?" Abraham asked the Generals as they were simply tossing cats at the enemy. Soon the generals spoke again.

"Also General Grant is a loony drunk." The Generals spoke again. Abraham soon got an idea and he soon spoke again.

"Then what does he drink?" Abraham asked as he was getting an idea. The generals calmed down as one of them spoke.

"I believe whiskey sir." He responded. Abraham soon got several bottle of whiskey as he held them in his paws.

"Then send him MORE!" Abraham responded throwing the bottles of whiskey at the generals. They fell down as the bottles landed everywhere. Thankfully none of them shattered. It felt like General Grant was the only general making moves and scoring them major victories. Abraham knew he had a general up for the job but in the east, they were going to be spooked.

**[A/N]: This one is pretty long as it covers the one of the battles in 2 days. We also get to see some of McClellan as he's laying siege to Yorktown. Next chapter will be in the east as Mapleshade will get the spotlight. See you until then.**

**Also congrats on getting this story to 75 views, I want us to keep going though as I wanted to express this as it means a lot.**


	13. The Seven Days Battles

McClellan had been holding out at Yorktown for about a month or two as he was waiting for the confederates to surrender but what he didn't realize was that the confederates were retreating and several cats were moving south to help the smaller force out. When McClellan entered the city and found it deserted, he declared it a victory.

"See I told you they wouldn't hold out with the great general George McClellan, I'm Brilliant!" George shouted as he knew he had other plans to attend to. The generals didn't think his plan was brilliant as it involved a lot of sitting around and waiting. They soon decided to move inland. After meeting some resistance at Williamsburg, they managed to get within 6 miles of Richmond.

"You know we're really close, we could hear the church bells ringing in the enemy capitol. We still outnumber them, let's go give them hell!" One of the younger generals told McClellan. He turned to them as he gave off his response.

"No." George replied. It didn't help that the union also lost the battle of Drewry's Bluff meant that they couldn't land reinforcements using the Ironclad but McClellan didn't see that to be the problem. McClellan was still holding back moving slowly and defensively in on Richmond. With his army split in half, the Confederates knew they had to halt him right here right now. This resulted in the battle of the Seven Pines upon which the battle turned out to be inconclusive. McClellan's advance was halted and now the Confederates pulled an ace out of their sleeve.

* * *

Robert's POV

Jefferson, the president of the Thunderclan Confederacy was in Richmond, He approached the gray and white tom cat as he was wondering if he would have a favor but more importantly. Try getting the Union away from Richmond.

"General Lee, you're up, do you think we should evacuate Richmond?" Jefferson asked Robert if it would be appropriate to evacuate the city. Robert looked at Jefferson as he waved his paw as he spoke.

"No mister president, no need." Robert responded. He knew he had the biggest strength to read the minds of his enemies and he knew that McClellan was cautious and weak. As they prepared to hit McClellan to the ocean, two cats rode out on horses as they were going to be assisting him with such a task. "Who might you two be?" Robert asked as he spotted the cats on their horses. The two cats dismounted as it was clear he was teaching her how to ride a horse.

"My name is Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson and this is my second in command Mapleshade, we heard that you needed some higher ups to help you assist in driving the Union out of Virginia. We're more than happy to assist." Thomas responded as he introduced himself as well as Mapleshade. Mapleshade was also given the nick name of the tumbling maple as she would come down like a tree and deal heavy damage hard. Robert nodded as they soon headed to the tent to begin the plans.

"The union army is 6 miles from the capitol and hearing that McClellan was in charge, we might have an opportunity on driving him out. We got reports seeing how he was moving in slowly and not going on the offensive. I say that if we thrust into his forces hard enough very quickly, we will have him spooked and he would be forced to pull back. I say we keep doing this until he retreated from Virginia completely. But we need to move fast so they don't have the time to regroup and take defensive positions." Robert laid out his plans. Mapleshade was on board with this plan but Thomas wasn't so sure. Robert soon turned his head to Mapleshade as he spoke to her. "You seem eager young one. The education of a man is never complete until he dies." Robert spoke. Even though Mapleshade was in her early-40's she still had a lot to learn in life and learning wouldn't be complete until she was killed. Mapleshade nodded as she was going to get ready to continue practicing.

Spending the rest of month with the army 6 miles from your capitol was kind of a scary thing but the three cats knew they would sit there and continue to gather their supplies as well as practice their strategy on how to push them back and when they had gathered sufficient strength, they were ready for their massive attack.

* * *

**June 25****th****, 1862, 6 miles from Richmond, Virginia**

Robert, Thomas and Mapleshade were waiting as they were overlooking the camp of the union. Their plan was ready to be put into action. Robert looked at the two of them as they were on their horses ready to lead. Robert turned to them.

"I hope you know what you're doing. I'll stay behind to observe your actions." Robert responded. Thomas and Mapleshade looked at each other as they were ready to do this. Soon the confederate cannons fired their shots as they began raining down around the camp. The union cats began scrambling around to grab their weapons and try to fight back. They soon began to drag some of their cannons away as a force soon went out as they grabbed their muskets and headed into line. Mapleshade looked at Thomas as he drew his saber.

"Charge!" Thomas gave the order. Mapleshade got out her revolver as she charged down the hill with her friend and troops in tow. They continued charging down the hill as the sound of the hooves and paws pounded as the union army soon got into position. Since they had to withdraw their cannons away so they wouldn't be captured, the line was made of the basic guards as they were thinly spread out along the front. Soon they began to fire. The musket balls rained down striking some confederate troops as they fell and were trampled. Mapleshade weaved through the first shots successfully as they were getting near the lines as the troops were struggling to reload. Soon they were within 100 yards of the lines as the muskets fired again. Mapleshade and Thomas weaved through the line of fire but some more of their own troops were cut down in the process.

Mapleshade began shooting her revolver as some in the front began to fire on the move. Union cats were soon being shot down as the others struggled to reload. Seeing how they didn't have enough time to prime their rifles, they soon knew they had to have their bayonets out. Once Mapleshade fired the shots in the revolver away, she puts it back in its holster and drew the saber. Soon the two lines smashed into each other. Mapleshade thrusting the saber into a union cat's chest, cutting him down, she soon raced around as she turned to Thomas who had broken through. They looked behind as it was a slug fest with both sides fighting rifle against rifle with their bayonets out.

"We broke through. I say I will scout ahead, you turn to help our boys against those forces." Thomas told him as the troops began trickling in. They had finished their fights as Mapleshade nodded. Thomas went ahead to go scout with the forces that were trickling in. Mapleshade turned and galloped away back to the front lines.

Mapleshade soon saw the troops struggle as one of the union troops thrusted his rifle bayonet into the stomach of her trooper. She raced along as he took the rifle bayonet out. Mapleshade swung her saber slicing that cats neck open as she went to try to help others. Mapleshade turned as she saw more of her troops struggle as she charged along with her horse engaging those troops at once. She swung her saber at the first troop cutting his head clean off as she ran along against the second troop who fired his musket at her. She soon weaved past the shot as he went to reload. She thrusted the saber into the cat's chest, stabbing through his heart, charging through looking for more to take on, she soon found the first cat wrestling her fellow troop down as she raced along with her bloody saber out as she thrusted the saber into his skull, forcing the enemy away from her fellow troop. Soon the line collapsed as the gray coated cats finished their battles as they headed into the camp to regroup. Mapleshade headed into camp as she took out her canteen to wash the blood from her saber. Robert soon headed into camp on his horse was he knew that he looked over to Mapleshade.

"Excellent work Miss Maple leaf. However our job is far from done, we need to pursue their forces and attack before they have the time to regroup. We're dragging the artillery with us as we will turn this camp of theirs into one of our own. Prepare to keep moving." Robert told her. Mapleshade nodded as Thomas rode back as he came in with the news.

"They are falling back but we need to keep moving before they have the time to settle down and try to make a defensive perimeter. If we keep the offensive going, they will be pushed into the sea." Thomas outlined the situation. Robert nodded as he turned to his two generals and his troops.

"Okay, here's phase 2 of the plan: We will split into 3 groups. We will rush the union army through their flanks and through the center before they have time to regroup. Thomas will lead the southern flank. Mapleshade, you lead the northern flank and I will be in the center. Be prepared to move." Robert laid out his plans. His plan was to split into three smaller groups to make their army much more mobile. With the three groups attacking all at once they will engage the forces in many different directions so they wouldn't have the time to properly get themselves together. Mapleshade and Thomas were the first to leave the camps with their respective groups as Robert was the last to leave with his group, the biggest of the bunch. Some stayed behind to guard the camp and treat the wounded.

Robert and Mapleshade found the most success with their groups as they pushed through Virginia attacking McClellan's defensive forces. McClellan managed to land the bottle upright when Mapleshade came rolling in like a storm. McClellan managed to escape but they were quickly overrunning their lines. The battles resulted was the first attack on Oak Grove which they managed to push them back before Mapleshade lead the battle of Beaver Dam Creek, Robert with the battle of Gaines's Mill. Minor actions between her and Thomas at the Battle of Garnett's and Golding's farm, Lee making headway defending his rear at the battle of Savage's Station. McClellan continued to retreat to the safety of Harrison's Landing on the James River. Even though they were making success, Lee and Mapleshade saw the opportunity to cut them off at Glendale but the battle ended up going poorly as Thomas was lagging behind with some of the troops and the orders weren't executed to their advantage as it allowed McClellan and his forces to pull back to a strong defensive position on Malvern Hill upon which the assault on the hill went badly as they suffered heavy casualties from the infantry and artillery being place on the hills. But still. McClellan knew he couldn't hold out forever so the army packed up and retreated back to Washington D.C. The three cats rejoiced as they were exhausted from 7 days of continuous fighting, but it did achieve its main goal of driving McClellan out of Virginia. For the north, the campaign had failed.

* * *

Abraham's POV

Abraham was in his office as he was reading the paper as McClellan walked in after he went on his crazy adventure as he was smiling as he was ready to speak to Abraham about it.

"Well that was a major success." George stated as it was clear that they didn't take Richmond.

"A success, tell me what was successful about that?" Abraham asked as he was getting reports that the north lost its nerve and abandoned Virginia. McClellan began thinking about it as he was saving the best part of it for Abraham.

"Well, we successfully retreated." George spoke as Abraham looked at the bushy white tom if you retreated, it didn't count as a win.

"You lost." Abraham told him that a retreat means you lost the battle and weren't able to hold the line. McClellan looked at him as he was angry over the fact that he had lost. He soon spoke to the president.

"I didn't lose, I merely failed to win!" George shouted. He soon grumbled as he left. Soon a black tom entered as he was one of the free Black cats that had enlisted into the forces, sometime before and he was a cunning strategist. He was also a message runner.

"Mister President, our Ironclads had steamrolled through their forces as we have taken New Orleans and if we continued, the Mississippi, will be in our paws." John mewed. Abraham had some consideration for the tom as even though he wasn't as black as the cats down south. He wanted to see where this would go.

"I understand Mister Pope, now I got a request, since McClellan failed to take the Capitol of Richmond, I want to ask, would you want to be in charge of the Army of the Potomac?" Abraham asked as he was looking for a new general to march south and take the capitol. John looked at him as he knew leading a group would be a bit of challenge but he knew that he had to do it.

"I'll see what I can do." John responded as he would soon leave to become the new leader of the Potomac army. Mapleshade knew her work had already just begun.

**[A/N]: The "mis"adventures of Grant and Sherman will be put on hold for the time being as Mapleshade and her friends are now the point of view for the next few chapters as they will be fighting in four more significant battles. I like the support I'm getting and I would want to continue this so like always, read, review, and share with your friends and hopefully we can make the most of Covid-19. So take it easy. That is all.**


	14. Battle of Cedar Mountain

The quest to take Richmond was still continuing as the newcomer was given the task. After McClellan's disastrous campaign, Abraham was hoping that Pope was up to the task. He moved through northern Virginia with ease until he would encounter the army again at a farm.

* * *

Mapleshade's POV

**August 8****th****, 1862, Culpeper County, Virginia**

Mapleshade was riding along on her new horse seeing the horse she had was killed in the battle of Malvern hill. Mapleshade had sustained minor cuts but she had lost her horse in the process. Mapleshade rode along as she had her cavalry saber, slicing up some fruit in her practice. Thomas rode over to her with his horse as he was admiring her progress.

"How's the new horse Maple leaf?" Thomas asked as he was wondering how well she was handling the horse. Mapleshade looked at her friend as she dismounted to be ready to chop the fruit up much more refined for consumption.

"This one rides like a charm; at least it wasn't that old one that just kept on going no matter how many times I yank it." Mapleshade responded. Thomas nodded as he helped her clean up the mess.

"Yeah I saw you riding head first to rescue those wounded cats when the cannons went off. You lost your horse but you didn't lose your life. You were lucky to have survived." Thomas responded as they finished cleaning up the mess. Mapleshade remounted her horse as they began to ride back.

"You know. I've been wondering about my kits. It's been more than a year since I last saw them. I wonder how their holding up seeing how they are in the heart land of the Confederacy." Mapleshade was wondering on how Patch, Lark and Petal were holding up. She hadn't been down south for a while to see her three kits. Thomas looked at her as he spoke.

"You have kits?" Thomas asked as he was riding along with her. Mapleshade looked at him as she spoke.

"Yes, the oldest of them is 14 by now. He often likes to work with books and ask the big questions in life, my mother thought he had some northern abolitionist thoughts, because his father and former husband of mine was a northern sympathizer in their eyes." Mapleshade explained who her oldest kit was. Thomas nodded as he continued to ride back with him.

"Northern sympathizer? How was he?" Thomas asked as he continued to ride along with her as Mapleshade spoke.

"Well he didn't support the state joining the Confederacy and even tried holding a speech before their eyes questioning their decision, we ended up with our house raided and both of us put on trial for not following along. He was sent back to his home country." Mapleshade spoke as she was beginning to miss Appledusk. She was wondering how he was holding out back home but Thomas understood the she-cat as they kept riding along with her.

"I'm sorry for your loss, the world can be one messed up place, I mean we wish that we could reunite our country to being one. However, slaves always tend to play right into all of our problems. It's best to live our lives the way it was intended and stand strong, you don't know who is going to come along with an axe to cut you down." Thomas spoke as they arrived in camp. Some of the cats were playing ball and other small games to pass the time as they were busy spending the afternoon with each other. Soon a scout rode up with his horse as he dismounted.

"Sir the union, they are closing in on your position." The scout mewed as he knew the union army was once again moving south to take the capitol. Thomas knew this as he soon got out his bugle. He soon blew into it wanting to get the cats in the camp their attention, they raised their heads looking at him as he soon spoke.

"We got reports of a union army moving south to take the capitol and we're smack in the middle of it. Be prepared for the attack." Thomas made his announcement. The cats nodded as they resumed on what they were doing to make sure they were able to continue what they were doing before. It was clear that tomorrow was going to be a busy day.

When that day came, the union artillery rained down as it was to soften up the ground first before launching their all-out attack. Despite what they were told, the confederates had twice as many cats as the union did. Mapleshade and the others were getting ready as the artillery continued raining down all over the place. They wouldn't fire their cannons back until it was necessary to do so. The bombardment lasted all day as when the late hours of the day rolled around, the firing stopped. Mapleshade got her revolver and musket out as she was to use both weapons in the defense of Cedar Mountain. Soon the attack came as a couple thousand union cats came along as they were racing along. Mapleshade was wondering what was taking Thomas and his brigade so long to reach the front lines, she knew she had to hold them off until they arrived. She knew she had to take charge as of now. The cats continued to charge up as the ridge was held by some cannons and a few hundred infantry but they were using the terrain to their advantage as they would need to climb the hill to take the ridge. Mapleshade was waiting for them to almost reach the half way point before opening up.

"This is where we hold them; it's where we cats fight. This is where these northerners will die." Mapleshade mewed as she tried to rally the cats together. The cats nodded as their enemy was almost half way up. They continued to try to push their way up as they were determined to reach the top. Mapleshade saw the opportunity. "Fire!" Mapleshade gave the order. The muskets and cannons opened up as their fire began to strike down. The first row of troops fell but the artillery fire was mostly inaccurate. Mapleshade knew she had to get this next volley off as she and the others reloaded. She soon looked back at the cannons as they continued to reload. Soon when everyone reloaded, Mapleshade gave the order to open fire again. The volley cutting down another row of troops but the cannon fire although still inaccurate, was finding better success the second time around. Mapleshade and the others began to reload. Mapleshade was surprisingly holding out despite the union cats getting closer as they raced up the hills, elsewhere the lines were breaking as the Union cats began firing back. One shots striking down the confederate cats on the ridge as the confederates fired again, the volley cutting down another row of union cats as the cannons were accurate this time as the cannonballs blew up sending some union cats flying. Mapleshade looked out as finally Thomas arrived.

"Mapleshade what are you doing holding out like this?" Thomas asked as his brigade went in to reinforce the lines. They soon fired as a result cutting more union cats down. He soon turned as he wanted to drag the artillery out of there.

"Get the cannons out so they don't get captured, we are holding this ridge." Mapleshade gave the order. Soon more cats came running as Mapleshade got out the revolver as more horses came along to assist. Mapleshade got on her horse overlooking the ridge. She soon began picking off troops that got too close to the ridge but six shots weren't going to cut it. Mapleshade looked around looking for another weapon to use to help defend the ridge.

"Everyone fall back." Thomas gave the order. Mapleshade nodded as she decided that she was to be the first to book it out of there as she didn't want to die. Thomas soon turned to her. "Wait, we're not falling back from this ridge, we're going forward." Thomas told Mapleshade as he drew his saber. Mapleshade did the same as she knew she didn't want to die or get captured but she knew she didn't want to lose. She nervously turned back around as the remaining troops were getting ready to mass. "Okay we're going to go on the attack and we're going to push these troops back. If we die, then let Starclan give us our wings to fly. Attack!" Thomas gave the order as he was the first to charge down the hill. Soon Mapleshade and the rest of the troops followed all with bayonets out.

The troops were still struggling up the hill as the confederates were racing down. Mapleshade thrusted her saber into a cat causing him to fall to his wounds, she soon slashed through another one as the cats continued to fight. At this point, the union army was exhausted as their enemies were charging at them. They decided to retreat. Mapleshade soon began to chase them down as she knew neither she nor her friends were going to be defeated. Fresh troops came forth as they fired their musket shots as Mapleshade and Thomas decided to split up. The cats on their paws raised their muskets and fired before committing to their bayonets. The reserves were brought up but they were being rounded up and captured. It was clear with those forces, they were able to crush their opponent who brought in fewer troops than expected. Thomas looked at some of the cavalry that arrived on the field.

"The union is in full retreat!" One of them reported. Thomas nodded as he gave some orders to the Cavalry. They were going to pursue them.

"I'm taking some of the units back, pursue after the troops." Thomas gave the order. Soon they nodded as they rode off with the Cavalry. Mapleshade soon turned as she followed Thomas back to the safety of their camp.

"We did it." Mapleshade panted. She winced as she was holding her hip. Thomas turned to her as he knew something was up with her.

"Is there something wrong, Maple Leaf?" Thomas asked Mapleshade it turned out his question was the most appropriate. Mapleshade removed her paw from her hip revealing a bright red spot on her uniform as blood was slowly seeping into it. Mapleshade had been grazed by a musket ball on the charge down at the reserves. Thomas looked at her. "Yeah you're hurt. Let's get you to the medical tent to have that graze wound treated. I'm sure I don't want to lose you." Thomas and Mapleshade rode back to camp as they wanted her to be okay. He sets her down as he wanted her to be in good care of the nurses. "Patch her together as best you can, it might be just a graze wound but I don't want to lose her." Thomas decided to ride off as he knew he had business to attend to.

Thomas and Mapleshade along with the rest of the army decided to stay for two more days before backing out but there were no other attacks that had happened, they definitely smashed their forces hard and held together. This battle was a victory for them.

* * *

Abraham's POV

Abraham decided to pay a visit to General Pope's camp to see how he was doing. He found the camp to be deserted as he wanted to pay him a visit. He soon wandered into his tent to see what was going on. Abraham soon looked at Pope who was in his whites and hanging from a pole. Abraham walked over to him.

"Hey there mister Pope, just checking in on you. How's it going?" Abraham asked him. Pope didn't sound too optimistic about it as he began to speak truthfully to Thunderclan's president.

"Well the Confederates have kicked my butt at Cedar Mountain, and then they raided my camp and ran off with my money and clothes. Also, I appear to be wedgied." John responded as Abraham looked at him. He soon decided to help him out of his spot and give him a new army to work with. It was clear marching south was not going to be a walk in the park as he wanted it to be but they knew they needed to make a move soon or the Confederates would take back all of their lost ground.

* * *

Robert's POV

Robert was busy getting more supplies as they knew they were getting ready to continue their offensive. They were smacked in the north but it was clear they were once again pushing back. Mapleshade and Thomas were riding back as they went to report the news to Robert.

"General Lee." Thomas greeted him. Mapleshade saluted as she had a bandage wrapped around her stomach where the graze wound was. Robert turned as he greeted them back.

"Ahh General Jackson, and Maple Leaf." How did it go?" Robert asked as he was relieved to see them. Thomas looked at her then back to him as he soon spoke.

"Well they attacked us on the ridge then I, myself came with his troops and we managed to push them back after that and we pursued them and attacked their camp. It turned out he had brought a lot with him and we were able to carry a lot of this loot back. Also Mapleshade was wounded during the battle." Thomas responded as he knew he had helped win the battle. Robert nodded as he was surprised.

"Say we should keep attacking them until they get out of Virginia then we should be able to go on the attack." Robert responded as he was grinning. Mapleshade was alright but she was feeling uneasy with the wound. "You two did a splendid job; you deserve some rest after this fight. We still have a long fight ahead of us. Robert turned as he walked off as he wanted to see his two cats feel proud of the victory they managed to pull off and they were hopeful of doing it again.

**[A/N]: How is everyone holding out? I know I'm holding out fine and I got some good news for what has happened, we got more than 50 views so far this month and we hit the 75 view mark some time back and I wanted to get that out of the way but sadly no reviews and we're slowly running out of steam. If I get the responses and views that I need maybe I would be able to post more chapters in the near future to see where this war would be going. Hopefully we can get something much more exciting in the next chapter to come.**

**Mapleshade will still get the spotlight for the next couple of chapters as I'm saving something for our western pals before we catch up to them. Other than that, take it easy. That is all.**


	15. The second battle of Bull Run

Pope had been falling farther and farther back. Mapleshade, Thomas and Robert had been on the run, chasing back, gaining lost territory back as they were coming back to familiar ground. They had returned to Manassas, Virginia.

"We're back; I remember this was my first battle with Thomas upon which we met." Mapleshade mewed as she was overlooking the rolling hills and fields of Virginia. Robert looked over her as she was still getting over her graze wound.

"We should see how this battle turns out." Robert told her as he nudged Mapleshade away. The battle was coming up and it was going to be the second of the bunch.

* * *

**August 30****th****, 1862, Manassas, Prince William County, Virginia**

Robert and Mapleshade were riding on their horses as they wanted to reinforce the battlefield as they had plenty of their troops behind them.

"Thomas has been holding out for the past 2 days and needs the reinforcements. We sent an army in but that army appears to be too slow so Thomas has been on that hill. Now if we strike fast enough we can catch their army off balance. If we do so we can be able to crush their lines and cause the Yankees to retreat." Robert laid out the situation. He was concerned for Mapleshade's safety as she had been wounded not even a month ago as he knew he was worried for her safety. Mapleshade was brave but she can be struck down by a round to the body even with her horse. The cannons began firing as it was meant to soften up their lines. The cannons ceased their fire as Robert drew out his saber. "Now let's finish this battle!" He shouted. Robert and Mapleshade took the charge as they began rolling down the hill with their forces as they galloped down. The troops followed behind as they were running headlong into a scrambling enemy.

Thomas had been holding out on the ridge for the past two days seeing the heaviest action just yesterday when they tried to climb the ridge to take it. Thomas' helpers came the day before but due to the speed they came in, it was clear they took forever and they weren't doing much to try to soften the enemy forces up. His cannons fired but they were starting to run out of cannonballs to try to use on the troops. Mapleshade and Robert charged in as they were coming in on their horses. Mapleshade got her saber out as well as her revolver as she charged head long into the battle. Robert's cannon batteries opened fire as the cannonballs exploded scattering union cats around. Mapleshade got her Saber ramming it into the side of a cat as she pointed her revolver and shot it. A cat in a blue uniform fell as Mapleshade charged out. She thrusted her saber into another cat as she galloped around, Mapleshade looked for her next victim as she looked on. She pointed her revolver as she pointed and fired the next three shots into a cat before he was shot with a musket. Mapleshade continued to gallop around as Robert joined her as he looked out seeing how he was taking out a cat with his saber. Robert nodded as Mapleshade galloped off.

The Cannonballs exploded as it was heading down in many different directions. Many of them were hitting their targets sending union cats flying as the cats headed through the forces as Mapleshade rode through the cannon explosions. She thrusted her saber into another cat as she fired the last two shots off wounding another two cats as she ran off. It was a bloody mess for them but for Mapleshade and her friends, it was turning as the troops from both sides were retreating. Mapleshade was heading for cover and the union forces were falling backward as they were attempting to flee the field. Soon the cannons fired as most of the shots landed accurately but one of the shots flew off course as Wilmer was trying to get his family out of the war as he was once again caught up in the fighting.

* * *

Wilmer's POV

"Hurry up Martha! There's another war out here!" Wilmer shouted as he was waiting on his wife so he can book it out of there. Martha peers her head from the window as she was ready to shout at her husband.

"I'M WAITING FOR MY HAIR TO DRY!" Martha shouted back. Soon a cannonball slammed into the side of the house in the same spot as the last one and exploded, tearing out a chunk of the house. Wilmer knew he couldn't take it. Wilmer, sick of war decided to move his family to Appomattox Court House where he knew the war would absolutely never touch him again. **(That's called Foreshadowing.)  
**

* * *

Mapleshade's POV

"We did it." Mapleshade panted as she was fighting hard for the past hour or so and she was exhausted. The three of them looked at each other as they knew that they had just pulled off another victory. However the casualties were beginning to mount and with the somewhat poor coordination of the battle, it was clear that all they needed to do was threaten Washington D.C. by invading the north and the demoralized North would surrender seeing how there was no way they could win.

"We should keep going, we don't know how much longer we will be able to keep this up but if we keep it up, we'll lose all of our cats and supplies, all we need to now is invade the north and take their capitol in the hopes that we could crush them around their midterm elections." Robert laid out the situation. He was worried about running out of fresh bodies and supplies meaning it was now or never to crush them. The others nodded as they began to carry out their pursuit of the battered Union army. They had a big challenge ahead of them and they wanted to get it done.

* * *

Abraham's POV

Pope came in as he was completely battered as the campaign had done a large blow to him. He went to the president as he had words for him.

"They're too strong, I had my ass handed to me in two major battles and I was unable to hold out in those two battles, I give up. Put McClellan back in charge of the army." Pope panted as he knew there was no way he could keep fighting. Abraham looked at him as Pope left. He knew he couldn't trust McClellan's tactics to keep them still as he began to read over the papers. It was clear the army of the Potomac was in pieces, 90% of it lost within a matter of months. Abraham knew that he had a secondary force being trained in reserve as he wanted to protect Washington D.C. before he could read over the papers more, the doors opened as another one of his advisors came in.

"Abraham, you got more problems heading our way. The outside clans, more specifically, Windclan are increasingly going to intervene on the side of the Confederates. They're missing their precious supply of Southern Cotton because of the Anaconda strangling the south and they would like to see a swift conclusion to the war." His words were right, especially since Confederates were seen a Windclan ship as for the Windclan cats, they knew they wanted to declare that the north couldn't win.

"Hmm, if we have a noble and reasonable cause to be fighting for, maybe they would be less likely to get involved." Abraham suggested. Soon a familiar face entered the office as he wanted to speak to Abraham. It was Frederick.

"Abraham, the northern army isn't allowing free black cats to enlist. I want to press the charges as I want you to start enlisting them." Frederick hissed as he was telling him to start pressing the charges seeing how they weren't enlisting black cats. Abraham turned to Frederick.

"I'm in the middle of something, at the moment, I'll get back to you in a minute." Abraham told Frederick as he would get back to him. He soon turned to the cat he was talking to. "Yeah we don't know what cause we should be fighting for, we better think of something fast or Windclan will intervene on our enemy's behalf." Frederick soon turned to the cat as he spoke.

"Why don't we say we're fighting to abolish slavery?" Frederick suggested. The cat nodded as he nodded as he thought it was a great idea. He soon turned back to Abraham.

"Tell them we're fighting to not preserve the union but create a new union, washed clean of its original sins, a union without slavery." He told Abraham. Abraham nodded as it was the idea that he wanted. Abraham turned to him.

"Yes, call a meeting, I wish to speak with the cabinet." Abraham told him as he knew where he wanted this idea to go.

Soon the cats were all gathered in the cabinet room as Abraham entered with Frederick as he wanted to speak to them.

"My fellow cats, we have got ourselves some news. We know that our relationships with Windclan haven't been the best as of these past few days but we're getting the news that they will intervene on the side of the Confederacy over their cotton they're not getting but we will send out the message that we are going to fight to abolish slavery. If we do have a noble cause to fight for, Windclan and hopefully Riverclan wouldn't get involved." Abraham told them. Soon one of his cabinet members turned to him as he spoke.

"Riverclan is in a war with Mexico and so was Windclan so they are most likely setting up a base where they can join the Confederates and march their troops through." One of the cats responded. Frederick turned to him.

"They have banned Slavery years before and we need to catch up. If we say that we want to follow the motto by freeing the slaves and hopefully my brothers and sisters will no longer be held in bondage." Frederick told them as they had got rid of Slavery before and they would only intervene on Cotton but Windclan and Riverclan had plenty of Cotton already so why get more.

"Frederick is right so we will be banning Slavery in the hopes that we will be able to prevent Windclan and Riverclan from getting involved." Abraham told them as he knew if they had a noble cause to fight for, they would be less likely to attack. But even with that one of his cabinet members spoke.

"Even if we do declare something as radical as emancipation, we need a victory first. Especially now that the Confederates are about to go on the attack." He spoke. Everyone was shocked, the Confederates have been attacking them out of their territory so far and from what they heard, they were about to attack the north. Abraham knew he had to do something before the confederates could take their capitol.

"I have an idea, how about we combine the splinters of the Army of the Potomac with the secondary reserve I have at Washington D.C. we will meet the army that the Confederates might have and hopefully be able to crush them in time for them to completely collapse." Abraham gave his idea; everyone was on board with it as they nodded. If this battle turned out to be a victory for them, they would get what they wanted. All they needed to do was find out what the confederates were up to.

* * *

Mapleshade's POV

Mapleshade was busy helping Robert to prep himself for the invasion of the north. His confidence was at an all-time high but he was still worried about having a limited number of cats and supplies, his hope was just to threaten Washington D.C. and force them to negotiate with him. He soon took a mirror as Mapleshade finished dressing him up.

"I look great." Robert smiled as he soon saw Thomas with their horses. They had the plan of moving in small groups to coordinate an assault and hopefully disorganize their forces to the point where they couldn't handle it and fall back from the capitol. Robert and Mapleshade mounted their horses as they were more than happy to begin their first steps into the new land, the three of them for the first time, invaded the north.

"Let's hope this goes well." Mapleshade mewed as the helped them lead the hundreds of gray coated troopers up into their fields.

* * *

Unknown POV

**September 13****th****, 1862 Virginia, Maryland border**

Little did the three of them know was that they accidentally lost Robert's cigars as they had to move a bit out of the way to go get more, this lead a group of union cats to finding the cigars in the field. He soon turned seeing the cigars scattered all over the ground.

"Hey look you toms; it's my lucky day, an unlit cigar in the field." A white tom mewed as he was looking at the cigar. He soon picked it up as it had a piece of paper wrapped around it. "Hey there's some paper wrapped around it, I wonder what it would say like those fortune cookies." He soon opened up the paper as he didn't get a fortune but something much scarier it said: General Lee's war plans. Please keep somewhere safe." OH MY GOD!" The tom shouted as he just found the enemy's war plans wrapped around a cigar. The senior officer ran over as he handed the paper to him as it was clear they had found the piece of the puzzle. Soon more cigars began turning up as they were able to piece together the battle plans and now with the news that they found out what the enemy was up to, they began to plan and they knew they were up for it.

This battle was going to be the bloodiest and the most significant of the war.

**[A/N]: Imagine finding someone's plans wrapped around some cigars. Now that's pretty scary if you ask me. Anyways nothing new from the author so just stay safe and keep yourselves from getting sick because the next chapter is going to be really violent. Keep your heads up for when it comes. That is all. See you next chapter viewers.**


	16. The Battle of Antietam

"Finding the plans around some cigars?" Abraham began. It was the strangest thing that has ever happened. Able to piece together what had happened, it was clear they were beginning to piece together what was going on.

"Based on the information that was given to us sir, it's clear that the forces have been split up and are all around the western edge of Maryland, it we can have one decisive battle right there, they would turn around and flee and hopefully we can chase them down." Frederick gave the plan as Abraham was on board with this. Abraham soon knew he needed to get a leader as he soon turned to McClellan.

"General McClellan, want to lead this army to where those cats have decided to split themselves up and I hope that you can do your best." Abraham told McClellan that he had faith in him. Seeing this He soon turned his head as he knew everything teetered on this one battle.

"I'll win us this battle." George shouted as he was prepared to take the secondary force down to meet the enemy. Little did he know, this was going to be the single bloodiest day in Thunderclan history!

* * *

Mapleshade's POV

**September 17****th****, 1862, Antietam creek, Maryland**

Mapleshade and her horse galloped along her side of the creek, she was alone and on scouting duty to see if she can spot the enemy as they were getting rumors of the enemy coming in. Mapleshade looked around as she spotted a couple of blue uniformed cats walking along. She grabbed the revolver ready to take them down but out of the blue came more horses and troops. Mapleshade was given a fright as she turned around with her horse and galloped away hoping she wasn't spotted. But it was already too late. The cats raised their rifles as they began to fire. Mapleshade was galloping off as fast as possible as she didn't want to be the victim of this next battle. She managed to slip away but they were now after her and it would be a matter of time before the battle would begin. She soon galloped off to find Robert.

Robert was busy enjoying a snack when Mapleshade galloped in as she was clearly frightened. She got off the horses as she ran straight for Robert. Robert spotted her as she waved to him that they had a problem.

"Maple leaf, I wasn't expecting you to be back so early, any news about what is happening?" Robert asked Mapleshade if she was given a fright. Mapleshade soon spoke.

"Yeah. I ran into some union cats this morning and I fear they are after us." Mapleshade mewed as she was frightened. Robert knew that she was right as he soon turned as he heard the thumping of Union cats coming. Robert knew he had to get his forces together and mass them. Robert got up as he and Mapleshade got on their horses.

"Every cat in the camp, this is not a drill, the enemy knows where we are. Be prepared to fight, and keep fighting until every last one of them is dead. Mapleshade, I ask you to take the lead while we try to get the other groups in to repulse them." Robert made the announcement as he turned to Mapleshade speaking that sentence as he and a couple others galloped off. The troops fixed their bayonets but they had no artillery to defend themselves so they were a prime target for the attack. The small group was actually a much large force. Mapleshade knew there was simply no way she could take them all on at once. She knew she needed a way out.

"Troops be prepared to fall back, there is simply no way we can repel them two sides at once." Mapleshade made the announcement as they were going to set up position on the other side of the creek. The cats nodded as they began to leave the camp as Mapleshade rode out ahead as she approached the bridge. She smacked her horse as she wanted to get over as fast as possible as she galloped over. The troops followed behind as they were going to get into ambush positions to hit the troops if they attempted to cross. Soon the Union cats entered the camp as they found the camp was mostly deserted. Soon the noticed the bridge as they decided to think if they managed to get over the bridge, they were on the other side. The confederates decided to hide in the bushes as they were waiting for the cats to cross. Soon the crossing began as they began to step over the bridge but it was a trap.

The rifles were pointing out of the bushes as Mapleshade got out the revolver and the saber as she was ready to command the cats to fire. Soon she waved down the saber ordering them to open fire and they did. Soon the cats trying to cross the bridge were instantly shot down as the confederates took the opportunity to reload before they would let off their shots again. Mapleshade didn't realize this but the union troops were using a new type of ammunition, the Minie ball. It wasn't so much of a ball but a pointy bullet with grooves on the sides. Mapleshade was still using straight ball shots. Soon the troops reloaded as they fired, tearing down more union cats trying to cross the bridge. Those cats that didn't decide to cross decided to open fire. Their rifles went off one at a time trying to strike down the confederate cats as they were reloading. Soon another wave attempted to cross the bridge as the muskets opened up cutting more troops. Soon the fire from the other side began as it was mainly individual shots as they were attempting to strike down. Some of the troops on the other side of the river were being struck down as some of the cats began dragging their wounded comrades from the battlefield. Mapleshade got her revolver as she was ready to rally the cats together to keep fighting as they reloaded. Soon about a thousand cats appeared as they began to charge for the bridge. Cannons began to open fire as the troops began crossing the bridge. Mapleshade looked out as the muskets fired again striking down a wave of charging troops but they needed to reload. Mapleshade fired her revolver off six times before they decided to charge in with bayonets out. Mapleshade saw the cannon balls as she decided to race off to avoid shrapnel hitting her and the horse. She galloped off as the cannon balls rained down and exploded taking out scores of secondary cats while they were firing their muskets. Maplehade was cursing under her breath thankful that the cannon balls didn't hit her. She soon turned as some of her own forces began retreating. She decided to take the opportunity to reload her revolver as she knew she wanted to go back out there and shoot some cats down, run to cover, reload and repeat. She looked out as she saw the cats slowly falling back and reloading their muskets taking shots.

"Get back out there and fight!" Mapleshade shouted. The gray uniformed cat looked at her as he was too frightened to go back out there as he reloaded. He soon fired another shot off striking another cat down.

"Look I don't care if we have to use sticks and stones, get back out there." Mapleshade shouted as she raced back out there to tell the cats to keep fighting. The enemy cannons fired as the cannon balls began falling down again. Mapleshade's horse reared up seeing the cannon balls land in front of it exploding. Mapleshade was sent flying as she looked up to see she had cut her cheek when she flew into the ground. She looked back to her horse that had taken the brunt of that cannon ball but now it was laying bleeding all over the ground. She knew she couldn't save this one but now the union cats were still charging out after her. Mapleshade grabbed the revolver as she began shooting the cats down. One shot after another, the cats fell until six shots later, she was out, Soon she felt as she was being dragged away. She turned her head seeing a fellow confederate carrying her away to safety. Mapleshade was lifted onto Robert's horse before the fellow troop that saved her was shot down by a musket. Robert and his horse carried a wounded and dazed Mapleshade away from the battle. Mapleshade looked up to Robert galloping away from the battle field before passing out.

Mapleshade opened her eyes a couple of hours later resting in one the hospital beds that they had made back in Virginia to care for the wounded. The Medicine cat walked along as he was talking with Robert.

"She's lucky to be alive but more importantly, only having minor injuries, it was clear her horse took the brunt of that blast and you risked your life to save her. You are brave General Lee." The medicine cat who was taking care of her told him. Robert nodded as he soon spoke.

"I know that. She's the other friend I've made other than Stonewall Jackson and I didn't want her to be captured by the enemy or killed. I had to rescue her from such a fate. Never do a wrong thing to make a friend—or to keep one." Robert responded as he turned to Mapleshade who was lying as her cheek and parts of one of legs were patched together. Medicine wasn't very good for the time and many cats would end up dying of disease rather than combat. Seeing Mapleshade make it this far was a miracle for those that were fighting. Thomas entered the tent.

"Yeah we got the news of Mapleshade being injured in the battle. She tried to hold the line but her group shattered along with the other groups. We got reinforcements coming in from the southwest but it didn't make a big enough impact to turn the tides of the war. Looks like we're not heading into the north at all." Thomas told him as many cats got a bloody nose in this battle alone. Their dreams of invading the north and fighting their way to the capitol had shattered. Robert left the scene as now it was only a matter of time before the north would come to their doorstep. Now their roles were shifted from attacking to once again defending.

* * *

Abraham's POV

Abraham rode out on a horse later that day to the creek where scores of union dead and wounded were being taken care of. The north just got the victory they needed. Lincoln turned to McClellan as he wanted to give him the orders.

"General Lee is on the run, chase him down and finish him off!" Abraham ordered McClellan to pursue Robert and his forces into Virginia but seeing how the general was stubborn he soon spoke.

"No." George responded. Abraham had just had enough of McClellan and his timid behavior as he soon spoke.

"You know what old buddy old pal General George McClellan, you're fired." Abraham told him. He was stripping the general of his rank as he knew he was too cautious to pursue a weakened enemy. But despite this, they got their victory. And Abraham was ready to take a huge step forward with this victory.

**September 22****nd****, 1862, The White House, Washington D.C, Maryland**

Abraham soon walked forth as his friend Frederick was behind him. They soon walked to the podium together as they were now overlooking a crowd of cats that were still continuing the fight. Abraham knew he was taking a big step forward but it was one that he wanted to do thanks to his friend. Abraham turned to Frederick then to the crowd as Abraham spoke.

"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of Thunderclan, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such cats, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom. That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against Thunderclan; and the fact that any State, or the cats thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of Thunderclan by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against Thunderclan. Now, therefore I, Abraham, President of Thunderclan, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of Thunderclan in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of Thunderclan, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against Thunderclan, the following, to wit: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South-Carolina, North-Carolina, and Virginia, and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued. And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of Thunderclan, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of Thunderclan to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of cats, and the gracious favor of Almighty Starclan. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of Thunderclan to be affixed." Abraham spoke. The crowd cheered as this speech would mean that all Thunderclan slaves starting in1863 held in the confederacy would be free. The black cats listening to the speech rejoiced as they knew if the war was over and the Union won, their brothers and sisters would no longer be held in bondage. When Windclan and Riverclan heard the speech, they weren't likely to get involved at all. An outraged confederacy knew that Abraham gave the war a new meaning, instead of preserving the union it was now about creating a new union washed clean of its original sin:

A Thunderclan union without slavery.

**[A/N]: How is that chapter, we got the bloodiest battle done, and now it's only a matter of time before things would begin to turn. All that I want is to have someone review this as I want it be as good as possible for my audience. Being informative as well as entertaining it. If we keep this up, we might hit the 100 view mark which would be touching for me. Anyways, expect a little Grant and Sherman the next chapter but nothing much as the war the east will continue. That is all. Goodbye.**


	17. The Battle of Fredericksburg

Elsewhere, the war raged on. The Confederates attempted a heartland offensive into Kentucky but it backfired. The native tribes in Thunderclan were allying with one side or the other in the hopes of securing rights for when the war was over. Thunderclan was still struggling in the east but along the Mississippi River. Ulysses was one of the very few Thunderclan Generals scoring major victories. With William, Sherman by his side, they were slowly moving south as they were getting close to the city of Vicksburg and if the city fell, the Mississippi river would be theirs and the Confederacy would be split in two.

* * *

Ulysses POV

Ulysses was looking through his binoculars down at Vicksburg as he knew the city would be in their paws if they decided to move south and attack. William walked to his side as he was wondering what his friend was doing. Ulysses turned to William.

"You see this General Sherman? That's the last settlement on the Mississippi we need to take. Before we can take it, we need to send our spies and Scouts to gauge their strength before we make any risky movements. I want to grab the city since we are so close to it." Ulysses mewed giving William the binoculars for him to see.

"Yes I do. And I do agree that we must be able to take some notes and plan out the attack if we are going to make some moves to snatch it up. But we are going to settle down first since we are not ready to take the city. It will be a long while before we could do anything." William responded. Ulysses nodded as he knew that they would launch their attack in the late spring seeing how they had arrived a few months too early. They soon turned and walked back to the camp.

* * *

Abraham's POV

While they were making progress in the west, they were still struggling in the east. Abraham was looking for a new general to take Richmond, Virginia. After giving General McClellan the boot, he needed a new leader to move south. Winfield padded up to him as he had the list of new generals to choose from.

"Abraham, I have compiled a list of generals who are willing to lead the Army of the East." Winfield began; he soon laid out several files of Generals who were up to the task. He soon began to introduce them to Abraham. "Option #1 is Joseph, Hooker, a bit of a nutcase at times but a good general. Option #2, his name is Ambrose Burnside and his freaking dope ass sideburns." Winfield introduced two generals. Abraham was impulsive as he knew he was going to choose the general with the sideburns.

"SAY NO MORE!" Abraham shouted as he chose option #2. Winfield didn't have time to go over the other generals and so Ambrose was now in charge of the army.

Ambrose arrived at the Whitehouse a few days later as he went to the newly consolidated army of the east. Ambrose looked at Abraham and his army. Abraham spoke.

"I hope you're finally up to the challenge." Abraham told Ambrose. Ambrose looked at him as he spoke.

"I will win us the war and I will head south as planned. I will only come back if something went wrong." Ambrose responded he got on his horse and began moving southward. He had a massive army behind him as he knew he was going to throw his weight at the confederates. Soon they met in the city of Fredericksburg. But seeing how nothing was going to happen and with the war department still delivering the pontoon bridges and they were now forced to camp across from each other.

* * *

Mapleshade's POV

After Antietam, Mapleshade had been sidelined seeing how she was injured and she was busy recovering in camp. The autumn saw little action on their side as Mapleshade had the time to recover as she was inside playing chess with her friend Thomas and it was a tight game that was teaching her to think about her movements. Mapleshade was still impulsive as she soon pushed her king into the open to take out a pawn.

"You sure you want to make a move like that?" Thomas asked her wondering if she was willing to risk it. Mapleshade nodded as she wanted to take out an enemy near her. "Sorry but you lead yourself into a trap." Thomas moved his queen down blocking Mapleshade into a checkmate. Mapleshade slapped herself with her paw as she was out maneuvered. Thomas gave a soft laugh before he spoke. "Don't worry; you'll get the hang of it someday." Robert soon entered as he was looking at them.

"Say I never knew you were teaching her strategy." Robert smiled to Thomas as he was cleaning up the chess board.

"I am but her strategy is to rush me down but she has yet to learn to take advantage behind any obstacles that the enemy would have to rush to take while we shoot them down." Thomas added as he was impressed but she had a lot to learn for her leadership. Robert turned to Thomas.

"It's because she's been riding on a horse always taking the attack. She's really antsy on the defense since she's always springing on chasing the foe down. Its best we wait behind the wall and fire over them. It seems risky since she has had many close encounters with death and she's going to get herself killed on day I fear. She lost two horses already and I feel like I want to make her a paw attacker until she knows what it feels like to be defensive." Robert explained to Thomas about how Mapleshade always attacked. Thomas nodded as he soon moved off to his tent to prepare for the night.

On the river several cats were looking over each other as they were camping across the river from each other, close enough to speak.

"Hey Yankee, ready to get your butt kicked?" The gray uniformed cat called out wanting to shout at him. Soon he turned as he spoke back.

"No way rebel, Starclan is on our side." The blue uniformed cat responded. The rebel turned as he spoke.

"No way, Starclan is our side." The gray uniformed cat spoke. Soon the Blue Uniformed cat turned his head to the sky.

"Okay you think so? Hey Starclan, who's side are you on?" The blue uniformed cat asked as two bolts of lightning zapped them as it was clear Starclan was angry with them. He was rubbing himself before realizing that had hurt. He turned his head to the sky. "Dude, Uncool." He responded.

**December 11****th****, 1862, Fredericksburg, Virginia**

With over 100,000 cats by his side, Ambrose soon launched his massive attack. However due to how slow the pontoon bridges were delivered, the confederates had the time to prepare a defensive stance. Mapleshade got out her musket as the blue uniformed cats were beginning to cross the river. She and the others began firing their muskets off as they began to strike the cats on the rafts down so they didn't make it across, they were also hoping the pontoon rafts would stall and float down river where they couldn't be retrieved. With the speed on how many rafts were being shot out, they didn't have the time to shoot them down but some were falling into the river. Soon they began to fire back as a few of her troops were being struck down as well. Mapleshade looked behind her as she soon saw the troops were getting closer so they fired again. A couple of the rafts were completely wiped clean of soldiers but the rafts just kept coming, they knew they couldn't completely hold as Thomas who was with Mapleshade looked at her.

"We can't hold them off forever, we need to fall back." Thomas gave the order. Soon the cats began retreating back from the river seeing how they couldn't have the speed to reload and get the next shots off. Soon the cats managed to get across as Mapleshade and the others were on the run. The battle for the river would last about two days; day three was when the real bloodshed would happen. They began to skirmish through the town as Lee, Thomas and Mapleshade retreated back to the stone wall of Marye's heights.

The three of them as well as a couple hundred troops had retreated back to the stone wall as the artillery was up on the hill providing cover fire down below. Scouts rode back as they knew they were in trouble if they didn't have a plan.

"General Lee! The union army is on the attack, we don't know if we could hold the line." One of the scouts told him as they had the possibility of not being able to defend themselves. Robert turned his head to the scouts.

"Let old Robert do this young one." Robert told him as he knew that he would be able to hold it since the stone wall provided cover. Soon the cats prepared to take a defensive position around the stone wall. "Okay troops, no one fires until I give the order, fire off one at a time since we don't want to be caught in reloading if we do get overrun. The cannons would provide us with some support." Robert overlay the situation as they knew they were finding themselves in. Soon Mapleshade and the others grabbed their rifles as they decided to head up to the stone wall as they pointed their rifles down, they were loaded as they were now waiting for the troops to come out. Soon they began to trickle out loosely in formation. Robert was waiting for them. Soon they appeared as they began racing straight for them. Robert saw this as he turned to his fellow troopers. "Fire!" Robert gave the signal. Mapleshade was the first to fire her rifle as seconds later, another one fired followed by another and another.

The troops trying to charge through the forest were slowly getting cut down by incoming gun fire. Wave after wave of union troops came charging into a brutal confederate onslaught as they were firing their muskets every second in single shots while some fired and others reloaded. Three waves of cats came along as they were still being shot down as more waves followed. They were hoping that they would run out of ammunition and would be forced to retreat but even they had their nerves being broken. One tom that was firing on the front lines fired his musket but he soon saw that he was killing innocent cats. He soon dropped his rifle and ran out. He soon took his canteen of water as he began tending to their wounded. The enemy held their fire as they began to withdraw their wounded, attacks ceased for the rest of the day.

* * *

Ambrose POV

Two days passed and the battle was called off. The Confederates won the battle as Ambrose was guilty of not committing the full force. Ambrose ran back to Abraham.

"We weren't able to take Fredericksburg, they had a stone wall they were hiding behind and we just got cut down, we can't pursue General Lee." Ambrose told him as they were unable to pursue after him. Abraham turned to Ambrose as he spoke.

"Looks like you're not up to the challenge, Ambrose, you're fired." Abraham mewed as he knew that he wasn't up for the challenge. Abraham turned back as he needed a new general to take control of the army. And the winter that was to come was going to be bad.

* * *

Mapleshade POV

Even though the south was winning, they were heading into a terrible winter. Mapleshade padded around the camp as it was clear the camps were full of disease, the food was less than appealing and on both sides, the cats on both sides were beginning to desert their posts. Mapleshade looked out ahead as she saw that one of the cats was leaving. She decided to follow him.

"Hey where do you think you're going?" Mapleshade asked the deserting cat on where he was going. The deserter cat turned as he spoke.

"I'm deserting." The cat spoke. Mapleshade didn't want any deserters on her section of the army Mapleshade tried to reason with him.

"Don't you love Thunderclan?" Mapleshade asked the trooper wondering if he loved his country hopefully he'll stay but the deserter had other things in mind.

"Yes I do, and I'm trying to get back to it as quickly as I can." He responded. He soon took off as he completely left the force. Mapleshade's morale was plummeting.

Abraham's POV

President Abraham, the ever kind and caring cat he was, was busy pardoning deserters death sentences to the cats.

"Oh man, here's a 17 year old tom that is being sentenced to be hung, I better suspend his sentence or he'll be suspended tomorrow." Abraham decided to make a pun by pointing to the cat right in front of him. His crowd grumbled as they still didn't like his puns. "What?" Abraham shouted as he didn't like it when no one appreciated his jokes.

To keep the numbers of both sides up, both sides introduced conscription. There was controversy in the north however as rich cats could simply pay someone else to fight on their behalf. Riots were breaking out in New York since many of them were outraged that they would be fighting for slaves, something that many of them didn't support. However this meant a stroke of luck for one group of cats.

Frederick's POV

Frederick was looking at the same tom cat that tried signing up before but things were going to go differently this time around. The black cat looked up as he wanted to sign up.

"Sir, I wish to sign up for the Thunderclan union." The black cat asked as he wanted to fight for this country. Soon the white cat looked at him as he responded.

"Well today is your lucky day, you're in." The white tom responded he soon gave the black tom a blue hat to wear. He was over joyed as they were now taking Black cats. Across the Thunderclan union, Black cats were signing up in droves as they wanted to participate and when this war was over, roughly 179,000 cats, 10% of the union army would be black. And these cats knowing what they were working for, signed up. This was a major break-through and would mean a big boost in their numbers. However, things were still going to be rough.

**[A/N]: Who wants to see a battle with the black cats, review if you do, I definitely love this as we're now over the 100 view mark and I'm overjoyed. Probably the big boost in numbers was because I gave the link of the Story in the Oversimplified Discord Server upon which I made another reference in this chapter. So check out Oversimplified if interested.**

**And I know what you are thinking, how did the battle go so poorly for the Thunderclan Union and why they taken such a bloody nose trying to take Marye's heights? Well I would want to quote from Potential History:**

"**Well unfortunately for the union troops, one of the features of the battlefield of Marye's heights is for a lack of a better term a ditch with a river flowing through it with trees growing on either side of the bank that federal forces had to break formation, cross on foot bridges and reform on the other side to continue their attack. During the previous attack of the support action, it had created a huge traffic jam of troops separated from their units and completely disorganized. Burnside, fearing Lee's legendary aggressiveness, felt a confederate counter attack was imminent the minute his attack stopped and in the chaotic state that his army was in, they would be steamrolled. He was forced to make a very difficult decision that he's been criticized for ever since, to throw his reserves into three more attacks to by the army enough time to reorganize and withdraw."**

**Sources used: Potential History's: Fredericksburg And Pickett's Charge, The Two Biggest Oofs Of The American Civil War**

**Well that's all for now.**


	18. The battle of Chancellorsville

Abraham and Winfield were in their office as they were looking for a new general to help take the capitol of Richmond, after Ambrose being fired. Abraham needed a new general to put in charge of the army.

"Well Ambrose Burnside was completely useless, let's try this hooker fellow" Abraham mewed as he was ready to put this fellow in charge of the army. Abraham was hoping to at least have a general that can do the job. Soon the general was ushered in as he looked at Abraham.

"My name's Joseph, Hooker and I heard I was going to be the new general of the army and I will be more than happy to take the army of the Potomac to Richmond." Joseph responded. Abraham knew he finally had a general so he decided to dispatch the new general southward. Abraham sighed as he knew that he had vigor as he turned to Winfield.

"Let's hope he brings something new to the theater." Abraham was praying that General Hooker would be able to get him the victory he needed.

For the winter and spring, nothing much happened. Both sides were busy consolidating their forces for further attacks and operations and many cats had to hold their ground. Mapleshade had got sick with the flu but made a recovery and in time too. Things were going to get bloody.

* * *

Harriet's POV

A black she-cat was walking along as she wanted to be part of the abolitionist movement. While the slaves were considered free in the north, in the south, they were still property and now, some were looking for their way out. Harriet was one of the, she saw the tom and some reinforcements stepped off the train as she decided to approach them.

"Oh hello, miss what are you doing here?" Joseph asked the She-cat what she was doing. Harriet soon turned to the Sealed point Siamese who was busy getting his stuff off of the train.

"I would like to help the Union army in some shape or form." Harriet mewed as she wanted to help. If she did, she knew her family will no longer be held in bondage. The cat turned to her as he helped her on the horse.

"Sure we can decide on what you can do." Joseph mewed as he wanted to see what he could let her do. He soon thought of an idea. "We're short on cooks; want to cook for the army while we hang around?" They soon began marching off with the force as they were going to meet with the army of the East.

"I'll do it." Harriet responded as she knew it wasn't enough to make much of an impact but it was a start. They soon marched down as they were consolidating their strength. They soon arrived at camp a while later as the two cats hopped off of their horse. Joseph went to his tent to plan.

* * *

Hooker, Joseph's POV

"So the plan is we'll have the infantry tie the main force down while the cavalry sweeps their sides and cuts them off, also a second force will finally take Fredericksburg and we'll finally begin moving south once the army has been neutralized, I hope that we don't get pushed back." Joseph told the generals the plan as he knew that once they attempted to sweep around, they would be surrounded with no way out and would surrender. They can take the she-cat and the two generals that were being a thorn in their sides out. They nodded as the plan will go into action. However, spying on them was Mapleshade as she got on her horse and raced back to find Robert.

* * *

Mapleshade's POV

Mapleshade arrived at the camp that night as she had been taking notes on the plan. Robert watched as she dismounted her horse and walked straight for him. Robert looked up wondering where Mapleshade was as she was back so late.

"Maple leaf where were you?" Robert asked her wondering where she ran off to. Mapleshade soon puts down the paper as she was spying on them and gathering some information about the enemy.

"I went off to go spy on the enemy, they are pretty much planning to surround our forces and take Fredericksburg, I can't allow that to happen so we better devise a plan. I say we divide our forces and take both armies on at once." Mapleshade explained to Robert her whereabouts and she soon suggested of splitting the force up into two smaller groups. Robert was shocked as the forces had been together for the entire time.

"Split up the forces, you must be crazy aren't you?" Robert mewed as the gray and white tom looked at the calico she-cat. Mapleshade nodded as she spoke.

"Yes I am and I am telling you that we can truly get ourselves that victory if we divide and conquer. I heard they were also taking Fredericksburg too when the attack begins. So we have no choice so we need every single cat in both locations." Mapleshade mewed as she firmly ordered for every cat in their army to be on their paws and up and ready to fight. Robert seemed skeptical about this.

"Listen Maple leaf, I know you want to commit to the risk and I am willing to following through but not everyone is able to fight. I got 5,000 cats unfit to fight because they are sick with smallpox, I don't want the sickness to spread." Robert spoke as he knew that if he committed the sick cats too, the army would crumble. Mapleshade knew she was making a huge gamble and she wanted to pull this off. Robert turned to her as she knew they needed everyone up and fighting.

"Do we really have a choice, send those cats to Fredericksburg and keep all the healthy cats here. We need to take on this attack." Mapleshade mewed to Robert as she knew if they didn't act fast, they could lose the battle very quickly and Richmond would be exposed. Robert soon knew she was right and he gulped.

"Well if you're willing to pull this off, I am going to follow up on that." Robert responded. Mapleshade nodded as she turned and began to leave the tent. Robert soon spoke to her again. "Wait." Mapleshade turned her head to Robert as she was wondering what he had to say. Robert spoke. "I got my horse there, if you want to help coordinate the battle between two groups, I am willing to let you take command of this opportunity." Robert told her as his horse was the best of the best and he was trusting Mapleshade to use it for this battle. Mapleshade nodded as she walked off to prepare the plan.

**May 1****st**** \- 6****th****, 1863, Chancellorsville, Virginia**

Robert and Mapleshade were taking a big risk in splitting their army in two, their enemy outnumbered them two to one and they knew they needed a miracle to pull it off but Robert knew he was full of surprises. On the first day, Mapleshade took the sick cats to Fredericksburg where they would defend their rear before running off to find Robert. Joseph missed an opportunity to flank them and with the help of Thomas, they were able to catch the union army off guard the next day as Mapleshade was racing from one group to the next with the messages. Robert and Thomas were holding out all right but the sick cats were slowly dropping like flies either from being killed in battle or the small pox getting to them. Mapleshade continued pulling the healthy cats over to patch up the Fredericksburg holes as they continued fighting, The three days of battle were slowly sapping their strength but Mapleshade was doing her best to keep the pressure on. Robert even refused to send cats to replace the Fredericksburg casualties due to disease. With Thomas flanking around and attacking them from the left, it was clear that they were going to break through. Mapleshade continued to race around the clock.

The second battle of Fredericksburg came as Mapleshade advised the replacement force and what was left of the first force to pull out to much more defendable positions and they came running. Mapleshade continued to dispatch the messages between the two groups but as the third day of battle ends, the next three days would only be minor skirmishes as the Union troops were withdrawing from the area, and then finally on the 6th, the union troops had withdrew from the area, giving the confederates another victory. Robert was surprised about the very risky plan and it worked.

"It's my master piece." Robert shouted excitedly. He soon patted Mapleshade on her back as he knew they were able to divide and conquer. "You definitely deserve some credit on that part, we scored ourselves another victory but it's sadly not the victory I was looking for." Robert turned away as Mapleshade turned to follow him as she was wondering about what he was looking for.

"What victory are you looking for then?" Mapleshade asked wondering what victory Robert was after. Robert turned to her as he spoke for her.

"At Chancellorsville we gained another victory. Our people were wild with delight, I on the contrast, was more depressed than after Fredericksburg; our losses were severe, and again we had gained not an inch of ground, and the enemy could not be pursued." Robert responded. He sat as he had the look of hopelessness on his muzzle. It was clear racking up these victories were coming with a cost and it was not a cost that could not be paid or exchanged. To make matters worse, Robert suffered one significant loss during the battle.

On the night of May 2nd, Thomas was riding back to the confederate lines at night time. The confederate cats guarding the camp were unable to recognize him.

"Halt who goes there?" one of the guards asked, they soon raised their rifles as they looked at Thomas and his horse that had just stopped there. Another cat turned to him.

"It's a damned Yankee trick! Fire!" The second cat shouted as they all panicked, they soon raised their muskets firing into Thomas. Thomas was hit three times. One round in in the front right paw and two in the front left leg, Thomas collapsed to the ground as he laid there bleeding on the ground. The horse looked around seeing an injured cat lying on the ground as he turned back to the night guard.

"You boys dun goofed up." The horse responded as it was clear they shot their second in command by accident. Thomas would be whisked away to the medical tent to be tended to but he was beginning to get sick. As the days wore on, his condition became worse and worse. Robert and Mapleshade couldn't see their close friend go like this as they decided to go pay him a visit.

**May 10****th****, 1863, Medical tent**

Robert and Mapleshade walked to the medical tent where Thomas was laying for the past few days. They walked in as Thomas' front left leg was amputated to prevent the disease from spreading to the rest of his body but it was the sickness that was wearing him down.

"How is he?" Robert asked the medicine cat who was tending to a very sick Thomas as he turned to Robert.

"He's even worse than yesterday, I'm afraid to say this but, he's going to die." The medicine cat responded. "Everyone should be prepared to say their goodbyes since we're going to lose him." The medicine cat turned and walked away as he knew there was nothing more he could do for him.

"Thomas I wanted to say…" Robert began but Thomas interrupted him as he spoke, his voice rasped as he was on his last legs.

"It is the Lord's Day; my wish is fulfilled. I have always desired to die on Sunday." Thomas spoke as his voice croaked with pain. It was clear that if he was going to die, he had chosen the right day. Mapleshade's eyes began to tear up as she began crying almost she was going to lose her friend that she made so far during the war. Robert turned to comfort her as Thomas spoke his final words. "Order A.P. Hill to prepare for action! Pass the infantry to the front rapidly! Tell Major Hawks…" Thomas then stopped, leaving the sentence unfinished. Presently a smile of ineffable sweetness spread itself over his pale face, and he said quietly, and with an expression, as if of relief, "Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees." Thomas wheezed his final words before his eyes closed. Soon his body fell limp and lifeless as his breathing stopped. Mapleshade was still crying as Robert looked at his friend. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson finally passed away. Robert and Mapleshade walked away as he wanted to take the time to get their feelings together.

"Mapleshade, I have lost my right arm, and I'm bleeding in the heart." Robert began to weep with her. They knew they only had each other to rely on now, it was clear that they had just lost their major ally. However Thomas would be looking over them from the clouds of Starclan as he knew he was still with them.

Thomas would soon be buried as both sides came to pay their respects to the cat that helped the south so far in the war. Mapleshade and Robert were going to be running the show now and neither of them knew what to do.

* * *

Abraham's POV

Joseph Hooker entered the office as he was reporting back from Chancellorsville as he had held the reports from the battle. Abraham was looking up seeing what was going on.

"General Hooker, what are the results of the battle?" Abraham asked wondering what the results of the battle were. Hooker's face was with disbelief.

"I'm sorry mister President, it's another loss." Joseph responded as he knew that he wasn't expecting Robert to pull a victory off like this. Abraham looked at him.

"What will the north say? And sadly I'm letting you go from the position of leader of the east. I'm sending you out west." Abraham mewed softly as he knew that northern support was continuing to waver. Things were still going to go roughly.

**[A/N]: Major events happened in this chapter as I decided to kill off a major character from the story. Robert and Mapleshade will still be weeping from this loss so the first half of the next chapter wouldn't focus on them as much as the other events that will be happening so yes, Generals Sherman and Grant will be getting the spotlight. It's time to finally take Vicksburg. See you next chapter, that is all. Goodbye.**


	19. How to take Vicksburg

While the Union continued to struggle in the east, out west, Ulysses was making moves as always. In order to try to Vicksburg on the Mississippi river, he decided to make a series of risky and bold movements. First, he sent Grierson on a cavalry raid which was inconclusive on the former but successful on the latter. Then he decided to move Sherman's army to the north east to try to confuse the enemy. John Pemberton who was in charge of the Vicksburg garrison was confused whether or not Sherman had plans to attack him but he was missing what the true intentions were. Then aided by 7 ironclads and 3 troop boats, Ulysses raced his army south to try to cross the Mississippi.

"General Grant? Are you sure you want to move your army straight to Vicksburg, they will most likely have supplies coming in." One of the toms suggested. Ulysses soon got an idea, he began to strategically move northeast in an attempt to disrupt any supply line heading to Vicksburg. He also attacked the city of Jackson to defend his rear from any Confederate attacks. He soon moved west, pushing the enemy westward after a couple more battles, the enemy was trapped in Vicksburg but their defenses became hardened as Grant and Sherman were forced to settle in for a siege, upon this time they got bored.

"Whiskey anyone." Ulysses asked holding out two bottles of whiskey. Sherman began reading the battles on which Ulysses took part in as he made it this far. Grand Gulf was the first on 29th of April, then Synder's Bluff from the 29th to the 1st of May, Port Gibson on the same day, After 11 days of travel, he engaged them at Raymond on the 12th and part of the army defending her rear attacking Jackson on the 14th, Ulysses pushed onward attacking the cats trying to head out of their defenses trying to encircle him. Champion hill was one position they attacked on the 16th then Big Black River Bridge on the 17th, finally they were trapped in Vicksburg under the siege.

"Well it sounds like you had quite the adventure General Grant." William responded as he was more than willing to share a shot or two.

* * *

Abraham's POV

Abraham was still writing down the things he needed as he was still pardoning deserters death sentences. John Pope came with the reports as he was still running the messages from the armies to Washington D.C. as he approached him.

"President Abraham, General Grant has reached Vicksburg and has the city." John mewed as he wanted to report it. Abraham was surprised as one of his generals was making progress. Abraham spoke.

"Wait, General Grant took Vicksburg, then that means the Mississippi river is ours." Abraham mewed with excitement but John looked at him as he was completely wrong.

"That's what I didn't mean mister president. General Grant has reached Vicksburg and has the city under siege." John mewed as although he didn't take it, he had it trapped their forces in the city. Abraham was just as excited.

"I don't really know this General Grant that much but I love him already, tell him to hold firm." Abraham told him. Even though Grant didn't take the city directly, he was just as excited that he had the city surrounded. It would only be a matter of time before the Mississippi was in their paws.

* * *

Unknown POV

Around this time, the cats in the north western section of Virginia that had remained loyal to the union throughout finally broke away to form their own state. The cats were debating on what to name it.

"Okay we just broke away from the cruel confederacy and we needed a name for our state." The leader of all of the cats mewed as he needed a name for their state. The cats looking began thinking of their suggestions as they were ready to start calling them out.

"Let's name it left Virginia." One of them called out as they wanted to seem to be the left of Virginia. Left Virginia didn't really make much sense as one of the older cats looked up as he spoke.

"Left Virginia? That sounds a little silly. Seeing how left is west and we have states like North and South Carolina, it seems fair we name our state in the directions of the compass instead of up, down, left and right. So let's name the state instead of Left Virginia, it should be West Virginia." The older cat spoke. Soon the cats cheered as West Virginia would soon become its own state. The cats loved it as they knew now that they had their own state.

* * *

Abraham's POV

Abraham was busy talking to Frederick and Ambrose as they were discussing on what to do next when Winfield entered the room.

"Abraham, we need to pick a new general." Winfield expressed his concern to him as he soon lead the president off as the last two generals didn't do as good as he hoped for. Abraham turned to Ambrose and Frederick.

"I'll be back you two." Abraham spoke to the two of them as he walked off. The two nodded as they watched the president walk away. Abraham soon arrived at a personal room with Winfield who had the files of the generals again.

"We need a new leader of the army of the east. I wonder if you can choose a suitable one that would be up for the challenge." Winfield mewed as he wanted Abraham to find a general up for the challenge. Abraham sorted through the files as he saw that there were no good generals to choose from.

"Oh my goodness! Why do all these 19th century generals look so bust?" Abraham asked as he looked through the files as he saw no one he liked. Winfield looked on as he watched Abraham sort through the files looking at the pictures. "Look we got Sleepy eyes Joe here." He began as he tossed the file out as he looked at the next one. "That's Princess Leia with a mustache." He soon tossed the file out as he looked at the next one seeing he was somewhat grossed out about it. "E.T phone the doctor!" Abraham tossed the file out as he soon saw a scrawny gray tom with scruffy fur on his muzzle. Abraham soon found someone with some sense of leadership. "Fine, why don't we give Snapping Turtle Mcgee here a shot?" Abraham soon chose that cat to be the leader of the army of the east. And he knew it was a crucial time in doing so.

Later, the tom that Abraham had chosen had finally arrived in Washington D.C. as Abraham looked out; thinking he finally had a general that could get the job done.

"Hello, my name is George Meade, and you want me in charge of the new army of the east?" George asked the president. Abraham looked at the scrawny cat as he soon spoke.

"Yes I do, my other three generals were ineffective at doing their job so I chose you on how you can get your job done. I hope now I finally had a general that would lead us to victory, don't let me down." Abraham mewed as he was ready to choose him as the new leader. George knew he was up for the challenge but he knew that he needed to find out what the confederates were up to. Harriet soon appeared from the brush as she looked out as she saw the two of them talking.

"I bet I can be some assistance to the cause. I sense things are going to be rough and I can figure out what is going on." Harriet soon spoke; the two cats turned their heads as they were looking at the black she-cat wondering what was there for her to do.

"What can you do for us missy?" Abraham asked as he was wondering what she was capable of. Harriet began to think when she realized what she was up for. She spoke.

"I can go spy on them and gather their information if you wish." Harriet responded. Abraham was surprised a bit as he looked at her sensing she could have potential beside being just a cook. Abraham knew he needed something to happen if they were going to survive.

"Okay, if you can figure out what the confederates are up to, I can allow you to keep the spying up." Abraham told her as Harriet nodded. Soon she was sent out with another spy as they both galloped off to the front lines.

* * *

Robert's POV

Robert and Mapleshade were busy making preparations when the President of the Confederacy had arrived. Jefferson turned as he went front and center to speak with Robert.

"General Lee, I wish to speak to you." Jefferson addressed the general. Robert turned as he wouldn't be gone long. The two of them walked off as Robert was wondering what the president needed.

"What is it that you need mister president?" Robert asked as Jefferson cleared his voice. He soon spoke to the president as he was ready to express the situation.

"Yes I do, so far we've been doing well in terms of military progress but the economy is crumbling. I looked out this morning as I saw riots on the streets are soaring as the price of bread is still continuously going up. We're running out of supplies and fresh cats to fight on the front lines. I want to send some cats west to try to rescue the besieged forces in Vicksburg." Jefferson explained as he wanted to liberate the forces trapped in the town on the Mississippi river. Robert thought about this but he completely disagreed. He soon spoke in his response.

"There's nothing we can do about Vicksburg, our only hope is if we invade the north, and take the capitol, the demoralized north would surrender, even though we're racking up victories, it's not the victories I am looking for. All I want is for the north to be completely crushed and unable to fight back. I do agree on the first part but we need all the cats we can muster since we are going to go on the attack. If we would win, D.C. can fall. The longer this war drags out, the worse our chances will be." Robert mewed as he was chasing for that victory instead of holding out and defeating the attackers, he wanted to go in and attack the defenders to see if he can kick the bee hive down without aggravating the swarm. Jefferson knew Robert was taking a big risk by invading the north again as they got such a bloody nose at Antietam and he didn't want to make the same mistake twice.

"It's your call; we need to prepare several forces in the meantime if we are going to follow along with your plan. I hope you can go in there and devastate their army and morale to the point they surrender, I'm counting on you Robert." Jefferson soon turned and walked away. Robert watched the president walk off as he knew he needed to restructure the command system. Robert walked off as he wanted to hold a meeting as he wanted a new second in command for the army.

Robert soon stacked some crates up high as he was ready to call this meeting out. There was sense of amplifying his voice loud enough but he definitely informed his army ahead of time. Robert looked over his group as he soon spoke.

"All Confederate cats under my command, can I please have your attention." Robert began. All the cats turned their heads up to him as he began to speak. "I know I've been putting this off for a while but I have two things that I wish to get off my chest before we make any further moves. First off, we're planning on invading the north and we get their capitol, we can win the war." Robert mewed as he knew that was what his plan intended to be. The cats cheered as they knew they were going to go on the attack again. Once their cheers became quiet, Robert cleared his voice and spoke again revealing the second thing he wanted to get out of the way. "As I was saying, ever since the death of second in command Stonewall Jackson, I've been contemplating on who his replacement will be but I knew one little Calico cat was brave enough to keep the spirit of the Confederacy fighting even if she doesn't have a single clue on what we are fighting so I'm placing her in command of the army. Mapleshade, step up if you please." Mapleshade went to Robert silently as she soon got to the crates as Robert looked down on her. "Mapleshade, with your skills in combat over these last few years, I'm promoting you to second of command of the confederates under my control. I hope your bravery serves us well especially now since we are just finished with making our preparations to invade the north the second time. I made my promise to Thomas before he died that we will make D.C. fall, if we don't, we'll run out of steam. It is up to us and us alone to coordinate the attack." Mapleshade nodded as she turned to walk to the new horse she was assigned, it was Thomas' horse before but Mapleshade will now be riding it. Robert smiled as he mounted his horse.

"You ready for this?" Mapleshade asked with confidence at another high. Robert turned his head as he spoke.

"Yes I am. Let's go get us some." Robert responded as their army began moving. They would once again invade the north, fighting their way through Maryland and Pennsylvania. General Meade set out to fight him as this battle was to be the most crucial. If Mapleshade and Robert would win, D.C. would fall and the Confederates would win. If the Union won however, the confederates would run out of steam and would be unable to fight.

And the small town that would get caught in the crossfire of the biggest battle of the war was Gettysburg Pennsylvania.

**[A/N]: Going to give us something big next chapter since they are going to clash for another battle and this battle is going to be a big three day one. If you want to see a Gettysburg battle, let me know if you want to see something like this. After this battle, will give Grant and Sherman more attention since they become very important after the battle the next chapter coming up. That's it for now. **


	20. The Battle of Gettysburg

Harriet came running back to the union forces as she was clearly frightened. She arrived as she looked out they soon turned their heads.

"What is going on Harriet?" George asked. Meade was wondering what the she-cat found out about the troop movements Harriet was out of breath as she soon caught up as she began to speak.

"The Confederates, they're about to attack, we must be ready to fight them." Harriet responded. Meade froze in his tracks as he soon snapped out of it. He knew that he needed to be prepared as he soon turned to the army he was assigned to.

"All right, we heard the young little snapper, be prepared to move." George gave the order. Soon they began to move upward as they wanted to confront Robert and Mapleshade as they were getting closer and closer to the town that was to get caught up. Soon it was all about to come to a head.

* * *

Mapleshade's POV

**July 1****st****, 1863, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania**

A brass band was playing as Mapleshade and Robert lead the army through the countryside as it was clear the town was preparing to defend against their forces. Robert looked out as he was looking at the town itself and the activity. He soon turned to Mapleshade.

"You ready for the day?" Robert asked, the band continued to play as the troops began to line up and several generals were also here to guide the attack. Mapleshade smiled as she looked out, down at the blue uniformed cats as she knew they would be easy pickings for a hungry animal looking for food.

"You bet I am, I'm more than prepared." Mapleshade responded with confidence. Soon the general knew that Mapleshade was going to help her out.

"Nice to meet you Maple leaf, Robert told me everything about you and I sense you have some level of confidence hidden away in that beautiful cat that is you. I'm George Pickett." He introduced himself. Pickett soon drew his saber as he was ready to make the move into the town. Waving the saber around, he ordered the army forward. Mapleshade and some of the cavalry went on ahead to try to tie down the main force until Pickett arrived. Mapleshade drew her saber and ordered the attack.

Mapleshade instead of charging head on, she decided to split her force into three groups. The center force would try to distract the troops long for the troops to arrive and deal heavy damage. Soon the horses split away as they ran off in two different directions. Muskets fired as the horses and their riders were knocked off balance. They soon prepared to reload when Mapleshade and the rest of the cavalry came charging out. The troops were caught in the middle of a reload session as they were struggling to get the bullets into the chamber. Mapleshade got out her revolver taking shots at the cats in the field as her revolver would allow it. Cats were shot as she drew her saber and rode off. Soon the main force came running in to finish this line off. Blue uniformed cats came charging in as they fired their muskets at Mapleshade and the attackers. The residents headed inside as they wanted to duck from the fighting. Soon some cats began to even fire a couple of cannonballs at the gray uniformed cats as Mapleshade rode out. The first ball blowing up a crowd of gray uniformed cats as Mapleshade continued charging, swinging her saber around, slicing cats open as she kept charging. Soon the second cannonball fired as the shot had less luck than the first one, Gray cats flew everywhere but not the density they wanted it to be. Mapleshade continued to ride along as she headed for the artillery cannon. Backed up by some troops, they were able to disable the cannon before a third shot was ready to be fired. Soon the union cats were in full retreat. Mapleshade pointed her saber to chase them down and hope they don't go to the bluffs outside the town.

"After them." Mapleshade gave the order as they continued to fight their way through the town. Minor skirmishes continued for the rest of the day. They were victorious in securing the town but now lay an even bigger challenge, the enemy was settling in on the bluffs outside of town as Mapleshade was preparing to charge out and finish them off but seeing how exhausted they were, they decided not to pursue them to the bluffs, that would wait another day.

* * *

**Day 2**

Mapleshade and Robert were matching through as they had plenty of troops out there as they were getting ready to begin the attack. Robert turned to Mapleshade as he was outlying he instructions.

"Okay Mapleshade, I want you to take the most organized troops and cavalry you have while we bombard them from the town. You're task would to be taking the little round top as I can trust you with that?" Robert outlined her task. Mapleshade nodded as she turned with her horse.

"Be prepared to move, little round top will be our objective. We march in to take their flanks." Mapleshade firmly gave the instructions, the cats nodded as they picked up their rifles. Soon the cannons ceased as Mapleshade drew her saber. "Now let's move." Mapleshade gave the order. She rode out first with her horse as they began to move out. Mapleshade looked up as the forces began the advance. Soon before they knew it they would be there. "Charge!" Mapleshade ordered. They soon began running at the union lines.

The union cats were prepared as they fired their musket volley at them. Several gray uniformed cats were cut down as they sent to reload. Mapleshade drew her revolver as she began firing away. The bullets soon came to the blue uniformed cats as they connected into them killing a couple and wounding a few. Mapleshade knew there was no time to reload so they had to commit to their sabers and bayonets. The Union cats soon finished reloading as they fired off again, more confederate cats were shot down as Mapleshade waved to keep pressing the attack. They soon began to charge forward as she knew the weight of their numbers would completely decimate them as the troops were struggling to reload. Soon their forces began overcoming the obstacle as she swung the saber around, slicing up the blue uniformed cats as she continued her rampage. They knew because of this attack alone, they were very close to breaking through the little round top. The union cats were beginning to fall back as they knew they didn't want to be overrun. Mapleshade, much like day one, waved her saber giving the order to chase them down before they would retreat further back. They soon rode out.

* * *

Joshua's POV

Joshua looked out at his cats as they were falling back, they wanted to defend themselves as they knew the weight of their foes was coming right on top of them. Soon one of his troopers spoke.

"She's on us, we're being over ran alongside the left end of the hook, if they cut the string, we'll be surrounded!" One of the cats gave out the situation. Joshua's eyes flared as he knew if they would break through they would be surrounded. He soon got out his saber.

"Fix your bayonets, we're driving them back." Joshua soon began leading the counter attack. He soon arrived on the top of the mound as Mapleshade was preparing to head up and take the ridge above. "The enemy is here and they're coming for us! With the might of our numbers, we should be able to push them down and cause them to fall back, get ready." Soon the union cats began to charge down the hills as Mapleshade and her troops were charging up the hills. Mapleshade looked ahead as a flurry of musket fire began going off. Cats on both sides began to fall. Mapleshade knew there was no point in holding them off but she had to try to get them to retreat.

The bayonets were thrusted into the gray uniformed cats as they were struggling to push them back. Mapleshade knew she couldn't maintain order as she reloaded her revolver. She soon began riding along to make sure the enemy didn't catch her. She soon began firing off at short range in the hopes that they were able to hold them off and this is where Mapleshade's legendary luck finally vanished. Mapleshade continued firing off as she charged at Joshua directly. Joshua soon charged out as Mapleshade did the same. Soon their sabers were being swung back and forth as they were desperate to trying to block the troops, When suddenly, a burst of musket fire opened up, tearing the horse down as it neighed and reared up before falling backwards. Mapleshade bailed off the horse as she knew her objective now was to flee. Soon the disorganized confederate forces began falling backwards, they were so close to a breakthrough but now with no way to describe what had happened, she knew she had to speak to Robert front and center.

* * *

Mapleshade's POV

Mapleshade wandered off as she was stumbling around. She looked like she had taken a relatively nasty beating as Robert looked out at her. He was shocked and appalled about what had went on.

"Maple leaf, what happened, why do you look beat up?" Robert asked her wondering what exactly what happened, Mapleshade looked like her face has been piled driven through several industrial machines as she was unable to respond.

"We were having it a nice go on their forces but then when we began the charge up the hill, they began charging down and it turned into a vicious bayonet fight, my horse was torn from me again and I don't know what to say about this." Mapleshade mewed as she was ready to break down from this battle, Robert held her in his paws as he was stroking her head.

"There, don't cry there, we still got another day at this. We must keep moving forward and hopefully break their lines." Robert mewed as he knew there was still a shot at victory but even the old tom knew himself that he was wrong. His words would end up backfiring.

* * *

**Day 3**

Due to Mapleshade's breakdown, she wasn't going to be participating as the leader in the last day of the battle but she knew that she had to still fight if they were going to win. Robert and George were looking out at the center of the field. Since yesterday's battle, the reserves were moved to the flanks, leaving the center completely open to an attack. Robert was looking at George as he outlined his plans.

"General Pickett, we will attack the center, but I think you're right about the plan General. But all I would do is give you 2 more divisions other than the one you have, the generals are stronger and more rested so that will be 3 divisions including yours General Pickett. Your objective will be that clump of trees yonder. The attack will be proceeded by mass artillery barrage, our barrage will be focused on that one little section of the area. Once the artillery is done, your charge will break the line." Robert laid out the instructions, George nodded. Mapleshade marched forward with the divisions as they were nervous but once the artillery would do its job, they would be able to charge through and break in that line. Soon the artillery began going off "You will have 15,000 cats at your disposal, you may begin when ready but plan it and plan it well. We stake everything on this." Robert told George on how he soon do it and when he was ready, the cannons began to open fire.

Mapleshade looked up as the cannons were firing away but since there wasn't enough cannonballs, they quickly burned their ammunition so this attack had to be it. George soon waved his saber as Mapleshade held her musket. She was to attack on her paws today. Soon the charge began as all the gray uniformed cats went charging out onto the field to the defensive positions but what they didn't know, it was a trap.

The cats in the blue uniforms looked up as they had lost several cannons in the process but it wasn't really going to break their nerves. They raised their rifles as they waited for the command. Soon the enemy barrage began firing as cannonballs began to rain down on them. Mapleshade could only watch as the cannonballs tore through the troops as the yelps of injured confederates wailed in the air. Mapleshade contininued to charge out as many of her cats were being struck down with the cannonballs. Mapleshade and the others were still making progress as they moved towards their lines soon the cats knew they were in sight as they cocked their muskets. Mapleshade knew she was nervous but they continued charging in formation. Soon the union cats fired as their muskets went off. Mapleshade soon split from the group as the cats began getting shot down the cannonballs continued exploding around them as more and more cats were being cut down at an incredible rate. Mapleshade's mind began flashing back to Fredericksburg a few months back but the tables have completely turned against her. Instead of her unleashing hell on her enemies and cutting them down, it was their turn to get a taste of their own medicine. Mapleshade could only watch as her fellow troops in command were getting shot down. She soon got up as she continued to charge into the fray to support her fellow comrades. She raised her musket and fired the shot missing as she went to reload. More muskets from the enemy fired as Mapleshade fell onto her back. She wasn't struck by a musket ball but she was too scared to go on even further. Mapleshade looked up as more muskets continued to fire, a small group of cats made it to the wall, but they were ultimately beaten back. Mapleshade continued to look on like a deer frozen in the headlights. The muskets fired again as more cats were torn down. Soon the attack was over as Mapleshade and the others began to withdraw from the area. Their plan had utterly failed and Mapleshade was left shattered. As the wounded and demoralized cats stumbled back, Robert looked on with devastation as if this whole thing was his fault. George came up to him as Robert began to speak.

"How did it go George, it seems you have had a rough go." Robert asked as he was wondering how the attack went. George faced him as his face was filled with sorrow.

"The plan utterly backfired." George responded. He soon looked down as he was beginning to weep. Mapleshade staggered along with the troops as she looked at them wondering what had happened.

"General Pickett you must rally your division for defense if they do decide to counter attack." Robert gave the orders wondering if the enemy would go on the attack but George looked at Robert as he wanted to break the news to him.

"General, I have no division." George responded, he soon walked away without saying another word as Mapleshade watched, it turned out that this charge alone with 15,000 cats at their disposal, they lost 50% of their entire army. Mapleshade and Robert soon walked away to prepare for the counter attack but the Counter attack would never come and they soon retreated back to Virginia. The Thunderclan Union had just scored a massive victory and that wasn't enough.

* * *

Ulysses' POV

A day after the battle in the east, John Pemberton of the Vicksburg Garrison wandered out as he was waving the white flag. Ulysses and William were looking at him as they were wondering what he was going to say.

"Okay we give up, we surrender, please let us be free." The scrawny tom cat mewed. The Blue uniformed cats began herding the prisoners out as they got the news that Vicksburg finally fell. The Union now held the Mississippi River. And better yet it was Thunderclan's Independence Day.

"Who's up for a party?" Ulysses asked in celebration, there was no better day to surrender onto than today.

**[A/N]: I took a bit of a break as I wanted to take three days on this, one day for each of the three battles. Mapleshade is utterly decimated and these next few chapters will be on Ulysses and Sherman as well as some new faces.**

**Also should I do the battle with the black cats since I want to give them some action? I sensed they would play a significant role in the war and another long worded speech chapter will be coming up so I'll give you a reminder on that. See you next chapter, that is all.**


	21. The second battle of Fort Wagner

With the Mississippi captured cats from west an east of the river began to move into Arkansas and Tennessee. However on the coast, the black cats that signed up were going to get their first baptism of fire as they were going into their first major battle. Abraham was praying for them to make it through.

* * *

**July 18****th****, 1863, Fort Wagner, Morris Island, South Carolina**

The Blue uniformed cats were all in their rows as they were on the beach. Many of these blue uniformed cats were black. A brown tom walked along as he drew his saber. Looking behind all the trained cats he had behind him. He looked behind him as he was happy to be fighting by their side.

"Remember, we march out across the sand dunes and take the battery securing us another island and a possible staging area for an invasion of South Carolina itself. The white general mewed as he outlined the operation. He soon turned to a dark black tom that was holding the flag as it waved Thunderclan and its colors. The brown cat came to the black tom that was holding the flag as he was wondering who would take his place if he fell. "If this cat should fall, who will lift the flag and carry on?" He asked. Soon a black tom with glasses raised his paw as the brown tom turned to him. He stepped forward to the brown tom as he was going to courageously continue the fight.

"I will." He spoke. He soon walked back to his spot as the brown tom nodded as he raised his saber to the air.

"May Starclan be with us and march." He ordered, the unit began walking forward as they were prideful and excited to take the fort but they were walking straight into a trap. Once he saw the fort was in sight, he was ready to dash over and take the cats inside by surprise. "Now… run." He gave the order as drums and trumpets echoed along the beach as they began charging along the beach. The Confederates held up in their forts were hearing the charge as they rolled out their cannons, they had dug themselves into the fort as the cannons began to fire.

The charging cats turned their heads as they saw the cannonballs rain down on them. The first shot fell short exploding, sending a fountain of sand flying, the cats turned to see a black crater in the hole, they were lucky to not have got hit but more cannonballs were coming in. Sand was being shuffled between their paws as they kept running, The Cannonballs were exploding all over the place, sending fountains of sand flying only to have them rain down on them. A black cat charged through the storm covered in sand from the beach. He soon turned seeing some of his fellow troops get flung into the air as a cannonball landed nearby. They continued to charge as they knew keeping their formations tight would be the only way to get through this. The brown tom looked around as many holes were being blown into his formation. He soon turned seeing some dunes nearby.

"To the dunes!" He ordered. They soon began to run in a disorganized fashion as they knew the dunes would provide some cover. They soon piled onto the dunes as more of their troops were getting shot down by a combination of musket and cannon fire. "It's no use, we continue under the cover of darkness!" He ordered, the cats knew they had to sit tight before they would continue down the dunes to take those cats on. The confederates fired as they were trying to hold them off as long as possible. Some of the troops raised their rifles and fired back taking a couple confederates down with them. The sun was setting which meant they can now keep going.

They began to charge out under the darkness hoping their uniforms would help them blend in with the darkening sky but it did little as the cannon and musket fire continued to light up the battlefield. Soon flares and firecrackers were being shot off as they left long, thin gray tails as they streaked across the sky. They continued charging along despite the flurry of musket and cannon fire. They came to a ridge where they began to charge over. The first few were instantly picked off by the withering trails of gun fire as the rest came running down the ridge. They soon stacked themselves onto and embankment as the muskets continued to fire. The brown tom leading the operation soon drew out his revolver as he was ready to move. He soon cocked the hammer as the cannons began to be pointed to the lowest angle they could go. It soon fired as one cat was blown up. The cat was still hugging the sand dunes as he was slowly scrambling his way up but seeing this, he looked up as a musket fired, the bullet entered through his skull and out the back killing him. The black tom looked at him as he turned him over. With emotional guilt, he soon grabbed the revolver as well as holding the flag. Others were watching in horror as their leader was shot dead. The cat stood up with the revolver.

"Come on!" He shouted as he wanted to avenge their leader's death. Soon the cats stood up and began to charge up the embankment. The muskets continuously fired on them as they were nearing the top cutting down many waves of blue uniformed black cats. Some jumped over jabbing their bayonets into their enemy as they kept moving. Some even tried kicking them down the hill but they couldn't contain the breakthrough. Some leaped up screeching like eagles as they charged the cannon batteries overwhelming them. One even thrusted his saber into the enemy as he finished him off. The tom who ordered the charge saw the flag bearer was down so he grabbed the flag waving it around. "Come on!" He ordered as the fighting continued. The black tom with the glasses was looking for a rifle since he lost his in the frenzy. A confederate charged at him as he grabbed the rifle from the enemy knocking him down. Once wrenching it free, he thrusted the bayonet of the rifle into the chest of his enemy. But, another confederate charged from behind him as his bayonet entered the tom's back. The black tom yowled in pain as another black cat came over shooting the confederate, knocking him over, he soon grabbed his comrade. The commander charged out seeing a line of confederates taking position on the hill.

"Fire!" One of the commanders shouted, they soon opened up with their muskets shredding the enemies on the hill but many of them fell down as well. Seeing this, they decided to keep pushing onward. More and more troops were joining the fight as they wanted to swarm the enemy that was going to overwhelm them. The troops saw this as they continued to run. Now was the time to press the enemy onward so they were now jumping into their main positions and using the paths to run along in. The two cats were being evacuated as the others ran along into the positions. A black cat knocked out a confederate with the butt of his rifle as they continue charging through as confederates were steamrolled and knocked down. Soon they were running into a trap as they saw several confederates with their cannons, they ran to take position but the cannons beat them to it, the two cannons opened fire as everything went black.

The sun rose the next day as the Confederate flag was being risen, they had lost the battle despite many brave troops willing to fight, this was a hard bitter lesson for them on what not to do in battle.

* * *

Abraham's POV

Abraham was reading his papers on reports as well as pardoning deserters sentences, when Frederick entered the room as he wanted to speak to him.

"Mister president, you seem tired, is there anything that is bothering you?" Frederick asked. Abraham took his head out of the papers as he looked up. He saw Frederick as he prepared to speak.

"Yes I do, the work of a president is never over. The war seems to be dragging further and further on than what I liked, we're making progress out west as we're moving in and Fort Wagner wasn't taken but the good news is that more and more black cats are signing themselves since they would have their families free when the war is over. I think you're a bright light in the room that is often considered dark Frederick. Continue doing what you do best and we can make it through." Abraham placed his faith on his friend as he was now hoping this war could wrap itself up but sadly it was still being dragged on and on, he was hoping General Meade was up for invading the south. Frederick looked at him as he spoke.

"I understand, the work to getting slavery abolished nationwide is being a difficult one and now seeing how we're taking several key points to crippling their economy, we're still facing opposition everywhere we are. We're still a long way away from achieving our ultimate goals and sadly, we're running out of time." Frederick responded. He soon walked away as Abraham watched, it was clear he had a lot more to do but he didn't have the time, it would be another 19 months before someone new was going to be elected into office, would it be him or another leader. If another leader came, it would be unknown on what he did, but for now they had to keep on their paws to see who would come on top.

* * *

Patch's POV

Patch had been head of the household for the past 3 years. Mapleshade was sending out letters occasionally to see how he was holding up but Patch was having rough. The price of food was becoming increasingly harder to handle due to how spoiled Petal was being. They were now living on mush made from flour and water seeing how the price of normal food was out of control. Patch went to the door as he heard a knocking sound, He looked out as he saw no one at the door but he definitely saw that the mail was up. He walked over to the mailbox as he soon opened it, pushing the hatch down seeing how there was no mail going out. He soon took the mail as he walked back inside. Looking through the mail, he saw various things, bills, some letters but he also saw something peculiar. There was a conscription note, it was clear they wanted Patch now. Lark came along to Patch seeing how the tom had a depressed look on his muzzle.

"Patch, big brother, what's wrong?" Lark asked Patch. Patch turned to face his little brother as he wanted to bring up the news to him.

"It's the confederate army, they want me too. Haven't I suffered enough with all of the high prices, the war and the bloodshed caused by the riots? Why can't we have peace? Haven't we endured enough for them too? This war is for nothing, nothing but a force that tears our families apart." Patch responded. He knew he had to say goodbye to his family as he wanted to be back He soon turned to Lark. "Take care of Petal, if neither of us gets home, try getting as far away as possible. The enemy is our friends so if you see them, come to them, they'll treat you well, there is nowhere to run but to them." Patch soon got up as he went to pack. He soon took his essential supplies he needed as he left the door. Outside was Patch's friend who was busy helping them out. She looked as she saw Patch was walking out. She was around his age but she knew she was super upset when she saw he was leaving. She decided to speak to him.

"Do you really have to go Patch?" She asked as she had grown fondly on the tom. Patch looked at her as he had to break the news to her.

"Sadly yes, the confederacy is calling and what way to ruin it too, we were about to go out on horses sometime in the future. I wanted to see the country but now they want me." Patch hugged her as she began to weep. Tears were beginning to flow out of her eyes as she was going to miss Patch.

"I love you Patch." She mewed as she didn't want to see him go but it was what they wanted. Patch hugged her as she cried into him.

"I know, I promise I will be back as soon as possible. Take care." Patch told her as he left her drowning herself in her own tears as he left the property.

Patch would be deployed in the Atlanta Garrison sometime later as it was his job to protect the city and the surrounding countryside from the impending union invasion into Georgia but Patch had a somewhat more complex plan, he would head off to join the Union, march into Atlanta itself and try to rescue his family and the lover he had to leave behind. He grew up a lover of the north much like Appledusk before him and now he was seeking an opportunity of joining the Union ranks but those days were going to wait, however those days were quickly approaching.

**[A/N]: How do you like seeing Patch for the first time in the past 10 chapters or so? He's got a plan on how to join his enemies and try to march down to Atlanta itself. I know this chapter didn't really focus on much since it was mostly just focusing on a battle that doesn't have to do with our characters but still holds some significance. Will focus on the western campaign afterward, and the leaders will be split into two forces as someone will be relocated soon.**

**In honor of the 54****th**** Massachusetts Regiment that participated in the battle, I weep for them as they gave their lives to help shape the country on how it is today. Even though the fort wasn't taken, it still makes me happy to see that the country is diverse when it comes to whoever fights and will continue to diversify as time goes on. Hope to see you in the next chapter.**


	22. Go back to Georgia Braxton

As far as the cats were concerned, the cats in Tennessee were fighting a lot more as General Rosecrans was pushing Braxton out of Tennessee. Rosecrans was scoring major victories. However, he was going to suffer a major setback however as he was getting ready for another major battle.

* * *

**September 18****th**** – 20****th****, 1863, Chickamauga, Tennessee-Georgia Border**

Rosecrans was beginning the advance as he was now heading into Georgia, ready to probe it before launching an all-out invasion. Rosecrans knew he had an advantage but Chickamauga was going to be a challenge. Rosecrans was looking out with his binoculars as he wondered how he was going to take on the attack. Rosecrans lowered his binoculars as General Hooker from Chancellorsville was attending with him. He looked out as he was getting ready to attack.

"So what's the plan Rosecrans?" Joseph asked the tom wondering what he planned on doing. Rosecrans turned to him as he decided to take another look out of his binoculars he soon saw the town below as he prepared the attack itself.

"We'll attack from multiple angles, I want to capture that Braxton figure off guard and move in from all sides except from the south east, I want to have a fair fight." William responded as he knew that time would soon come. He soon turned back to Joseph as he wanted to prepare for the attack. "Hooker, prepare your forces as you will be attacking from the southwest and south. I'll cover the other directions." Joseph nodded as he went off to gather his forces for the attack.

Their plan was to encircle Chickamauga with a two prong attack but since the South east wouldn't be covered, Braxton knew he could withdraw his forces and attack from the outside and hold the town. Hooker executed his part of the plan as he decided to charge in with his cannons bombarding the city. The troops began moving in taking in the position and try to tie down their strongest forces but because of this his attack didn't close the gap tight enough as Rosecrans ordered his attack. Rosecrans made some headway destroying the lightly fortified northern section of the city; he pushed deep managing to get within a half of mile of the town itself. Seeing how the forces were tied up. Braxton ordered a counter attack; their forces began to push the two spearheads as they began to pull back seeing how they didn't want to get encircled. Soon the lines became even as they were still getting pushed back further and further. Hooker and Rosecrans didn't know this but they were being forced back into Tennessee. And for the rest of the battle, they took up defensive positions in Chattanooga. Hooker and Rosecrans came to the middle as they wanted to speak.

"So the plan didn't work out like how you wanted it?" Joseph asked wondering how the attack turned into an utter disaster. Rosecrans looked at him as he was crazy.

"Yeah you shouldn't have attacked those divisions head on you stubborn tom. If you tried cutting them off, we could link up and have their forces surrounded. We did deal a heavy blow to them as they had taken nearly 20 thousand casualties compared to our 16 thousand. So we had a pretty bloody run at this but what makes the situation worse is that we're under siege in Chattanooga." William responded. The losses on both sides were severe as they were now surrounded. However Braxton was a little nicer compared to the other Confederate generals they had encountered.

"Hey you dorks, want to hold a temporary truce? We have tons of wounded cats that need to be evacuated." Braxton called out. Rosecrans looked at him as he had wounded cats that needed to be returned home as well.

"Yeah I believe we can hold a truce." William mewed as he knew he could use a well-deserved break. It was clear these truces would mean a lot to them. And during these truces, troops would meet each other to trade. Rosecrans came to Braxton as they agreed to meet in private.

Rosecrans was nervous about this but seeing how this was a truce, Braxton soon arrived from the other side of the forest as he was just as tense as Rosecrans too. They soon met and shook their paws. Rosecrans spoke first.

"So what is it that you would like to offer?" William asked Braxton. Braxton shuffled his paw for a moment before remembering the cigars he had. He soon got out one as he gave it to Rosecrans. Rosecrans felt some happiness as he was carrying some beans in trade. He soon pushed them into Braxton's paw as he wanted to have these beans with consumption. "They're coffee beans, they help you well as a form of energy when you feel sleepy so don't feel threatened when you have an energy surge," Braxton liked the offer as he turned to William as he spoke.

"You know what goes good with coffee?" Braxton asked. Rosecrans nodded no before Braxton gave his answer away. "Honey." He soon turned to the viewers who were still reading this. "Do you like honey? Me too! Bees are great! And you know what rhymes with honey? Money. Did you know honey can help you save money? Let me explain: honey is a free browser extension that automatically finds you the best coupon codes when you buy stuff online for free, for example. Here I am purchasing a hundred pepperoni pizzas, because what the heck I do, what I want, which is the click of a button I've saved two hundred and ten dollars. Nice honey works with over 30,000 websites, including eBay Target and Expedia, and it's already found Oversimplified subscribers over forty six thousand dollars in savings. It takes just two clicks to install and better yet it's absolutely positively 100 free gut honey now and start saving money by clicking on the link in the description below join honey, calm, oversimplified, that's, join honey, calm over simplified and, as always, you'll be supporting my Channel so thank you now. Where was I? Oh yeah, Vicksburg, Fourth of July, and the siege of Chattanooga." Braxton finished, they soon turned back as Rosecrans was puzzled and utterly speechless, what was the point of making advertisements?

Fortunately, Generals Sherman and Grant Showed up a couple of months prior after the battle and they were ready to kick Braxton back into Georgia.

* * *

Ulysses' POV

Ulysses and Sherman along with their battle hardened divisions arrived in the camp at Chattanooga as they were ready to fight. Grant dismounted his horse as Rosecrans and Hooker came forth to greet them.

"It's an honor to meet you." Joseph greeted the two cats. Sherman nodded as he went to Rosecrans as he spoke.

"You must be Joseph Hooker? I'm William Sherman and this is General Ulysses Grant, now commander of all western union armies." William introduced himself. Rosecrans came forth as he and Hooker shook their paws. They were eager to meet them.

"Yes that is me and this is William Rosecrans, we need some help driving a certain Braxton back into Georgia, we attended to take Chickamauga but we got pushed back to Chattanooga. Let's hope you can break the siege. First step, taking the ridges." William responded as he formally introduced himself. He soon outlined the situation and they began making steps on retaking the ridge and pushing them back into Georgia.

**November 23****rd****, 1863, Chattanooga, Tennessee**

With General Hooker reestablishing a supply connection to the besieged forces, the three generals knew they were ready to take the force on. Grant was going to stay behind to defend his forces from any oncoming attackers as he thought his generals would do valuable work. The generals saluted as they moved off to take the ridges.

* * *

Sherman William's POV

Sherman looked ahead as he saw the ridge as he knew taking it would be no easy task. He soon drew his saber as he gave the order to advance but he decided to speak first.

"Okay troopers, we are given the orders of taking the ridge. It maybe high up but we'll be fighting above the clouds this time. Prepare to charge." William responded as he was willing to charge up there and take the high ground. Sherman galloped away on his horse as he pointed his saber down giving them the order to charge. The troops began thumping along with their paws as they began charging up the ridge.

The Confederates that were on the ridge had the high ground as they began to fire their cannons down below. The cannons were falling short as all it was doing was creating craters on the hill, craters the troops can take shelter in. Sherman's artillery battery was position was at the bottom of the ridge as the guns were raised to the point where they could hit the ridge, soon they began firing. The Confederates that were looking down didn't realized their cannons were having no effect on the enemy when they heard a whirling sound to look up seeing cannonballs flying toward them. They realized the enemy had found them, the cannonballs exploded as it sent the confederates and parts of their cannons flying in many different directions. Those that were left tried holding their ground as many more cannonballs rained down on them. After an hour of continuous bombardment, the main attack began as the Confederates got out of their positions and looked up in horror as Sherman was galloping to their lines on his horse. The Confederates seeing how few numbers they had knew they needed to hold their ground but it wasn't going to be enough. Soon they began to fire their muskets at the charging enemy. The bullets struck down a couple of union troops but they began firing back. The confederates began to fall as they were shot. Sherman was riding around rallying the troops to push on as the confederate cannons ran out of cannonballs to fire. Soon the troops managed to push themselves over the ridge as an intense bayonet fight began. Sherman rode along as he sliced a confederate open with his saber as he wanted to rally his troops. He got out the revolver as he began firing several shots at the Confederates that were desperately trying to hold the ridge. Sherman's horse galloped forward as he decapitated a Confederate troop as he rode on the troops looked on as they continued shoving their foes down. Sherman looked on as the confederates were beginning to retreat before them. It was clear that they had enough.

"Okay that's enough." William called out to his troops as he knew the attack was the result of Ulysses karate kicking Braxton back into Georgia. Ulysses showed up with the other generals as they looked like they were having a good time dealing damage to the army.

"How was your fight General Sherman?" Ulysses asked him wondering how he manage to hold out kicking the Confederates off the ridge.

"Easier than I had anticipated, we only took a few casualties on our part but we definitely pushed them away." William responded as he gave the reports to Ulysses. Ulysses began to read it over as it was clear it was a complete victory for them. Hooker padded forth after dismounting his horse.

"Looks like the path to Georgia is now completely open, we're moving into the heartland of the Confederacy now." Joseph sighed with some relief. He was glad the war was now turning into their favor.

"Yes it is, we'll be marching into the Confederate heartland when we retake Chickamauga and then we'll be taking Atlanta." William responded. Everyone turned their heads to Sherman as they wondered what he meant by taking Atlanta itself.

"Any idea on what you mean by that?" Ulysses asked curiously wondering what Sherman was talking about. Sherman turned his head to Ulysses as he soon spoke.

"We march to the sea through the Confederate Heartland and destroy everything we come across; we want to truly cripple their economy." William responded. Sherman was getting some blood thirsty ideas but if it worked, it worked.

* * *

Abraham's POV

Abraham was sitting in his office as he was reading the battle reports. He was soon surprised on how much Ulysses was making progress. He was very happy about this as he continued to read.

"This General Grant will always be my #1 general. I hope with these victories, the war is finally turning." Abraham mewed to himself as he liked this general. Soon Ambrose came in as he went to the president.

"Mister President, we got a letter from Gettysburg. It says they have converted the town into a hospital to take care of the scores of wounded and a new cemetery had been established for those that gave their lives, they want you to attend its opening ceremony." Ambrose mewed as he wanted to tell him as he wanted the president himself to attend the opening ceremony for the new graveyard.

"Tell them I will attend and I will address the need to continue the fight. I want to really try to impress my fellow countrymen and keep fighting until the war is over." Abraham mewed. He soon got up as he wanted to prepare his trip to Gettysburg. He soon turned to Ambrose as he was wondering, what day it was going to be. "Hey, when will the speech be held?" Abraham asked wondering when it would be open; he knew he wanted to make some remarks. Ambrose turned his head as he spoke.

"November 19th, I suggest you get yourself ready." Ambrose told him the date. Abraham nodded as he soon began to prepare to move to Gettysburg. He knew that the most important day was going to come.

**[A/N]: Next chapter will be the speech so be prepared for a long block of text which will be the speech. Will most likely look it up and edit it to make more sense of it. It will be very important so pay attention next chapter. We covered Chickamauga and the attacks that ended the siege.**

**We won't be focusing on the south until the chapter after that with Mapleshade and General Lee. I hope some union action with the troops would be enough to satisfy your needs and I'm praying for us to end strongly this month and get us some reviews. That is all.**


	23. The Gettysburg Address

**November 19****th****, 1863, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania**

Abraham decided to take a train to Gettysburg as he wanted to attend the opening ceremony of the Cemetery. He soon arrived as he began to move in. Soon he was greeted then taken to a wooden stage with hundreds of on lookers as they wanted to hear them. After some short attendance, a cat under the name of Everett began to speak.

"Standing beneath this serene sky, overlooking these broad fields now reposing from the labors of the waning year, the mighty Alleghenies dimly towering before us, the graves of our brethren beneath our feet, it is with hesitation that I raise my poor voice to break the eloquent silence of God and Nature. But the duty to which you have called me must be performed;–grant me, I pray you, your indulgence and your sympathy. It was appointed by law in Athens, that the obsequies of the citizens who fell in battle should be performed at the public expense, and in the most honorable manner. Their bones were carefully gathered up from the funeral pyre where their bodies were consumed, and brought home to the city. There, for three days before the interment, they lay in state, beneath tents of honor, to receive the votive offerings of friends and relatives,–flowers, weapons, precious ornaments, painted vases,–the last tributes of surviving affection. Ten coffins of funereal cypress received the honorable deposit, one for each of the tribes of the city, and an eleventh in memory of the unrecognized, but not therefore unhonored, dead, and of those whose remains could not be recovered. On the fourth day the mournful procession was formed: mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, led the way, and to them it was permitted by the simplicity of ancient manners to utter aloud their lamentations for the beloved and the lost; the male relatives and friends of the deceased followed; citizens and strangers closed the train. Thus marshalled, they moved to the place of interment in that famous Ceramicus, the most beautiful suburb of Athens, which had been adorned by Cimon, the son of Miltiades, with walks and fountains and columns,–whose groves were filled with altars, shrines, and temples,–whose gardens were kept forever green by the streams from the neighboring hills, and shaded with the trees sacred to Minerva and coeval with the foundation of the city,–whose circuit enclosed:

"The olive grove of Academe,  
Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird  
Trilled his thick-warbled note the summer long,"–

Whose pathways gleamed with the monuments of the illustrious dead, the work of the most consummate masters that ever gave life to marble? There, beneath the overarching plane-trees, upon a lofty stage erected for the purpose, it was ordained that a funeral oration should be pronounced by some citizen of Athens, in the presence of the assembled multitude. Such were the tokens of respect required to be paid at Athens to the memory of those who had fallen in the cause of their country. For those alone who fell at Marathon a peculiar honor was reserved. As the battle fought upon that immortal field was distinguished from all others in Grecian history for its influence over the fortunes of Hellas,–as it depended upon the event of that day whether Greece should live, a glory and a light to all coming time, or should expire, like the meteor of a moment; so the honors awarded to its martyr-heroes were such as were bestowed by Athens on no other occasion. They alone of all her sons were entombed upon the spot which they had forever rendered famous. Their names were inscribed upon ten pillars erected upon the monumental tumulus which covered their ashes and although the columns, beneath the hand of time and barbaric violence, have long since disappeared, the venerable mound still marks the spot where they fought and fell,–

"That battle-field where Persia's victim-horde  
First bowed beneath the brunt of Hellas' sword."

And shall I, fellow-citizens, who, after an interval of twenty-three centuries, a youthful pilgrim from the world unknown to ancient Greece, have wandered over that illustrious plain, ready to put off the shoes from off my feet, as one that stands on holy ground,–who have gazed with respectful emotion on the mound which still protects the dust of those who rolled back the tide of Persian invasion, and rescued the land of popular liberty, of letters, and of arts, from the ruthless foe,–stand unmoved over the graves of our dear brethren, who so lately, on three of those all-important days which decide a nation's history,–days on whose issue it depended whether this august republican Union, founded by some of the wisest statesmen that ever lived, cemented with the blood of some of the purest patriots that ever died, should perish or endure,–rolled back the tide of an invasion, not less unprovoked, not less ruthless, than that which came to plant the dark banner of Asiatic despotism and slavery on the free soil of Greece? Heaven forbid! And could I prove so insensible to every prompting of patriotic duty and affection, not only would you, fellow-citizens, gathered many of you from distant States, who have come to take part in these pious offices of gratitude,–you, respected fathers, brethren, matrons, sisters, who surround me,–cry out for shame, but the forms of brave and patriotic men who fill these honored graves would heave with indignation beneath the sod. We have assembled, friends, fellow-citizens, at the invitation of the Executive of the great central State of Pennsylvania, seconded by the Governors of seventeen other loyal States of the Union, to pay the last tribute of respect to the brave men who, in the hard-fought battles of the first, second, and third days of July last, laid down their lives for the country on these hillsides and the plains before us, and whose remains have been gathered into the cemetery which we consecrate this day. As my eye ranges over the fields whose sods were so lately moistened by the blood of gallant and loyal men, I feel, as never before, how truly it was said of old that it is sweet and becoming to die for one's country. I feel, as never before, how justly, from the dawn of history to the present time, men have paid the homage of their gratitude and admiration to the memory of those who nobly sacrifice their lives that their fellow-men may live in safety and in honor. And if this tribute were ever due, to whom could it be more justly paid than to those whose last resting-place we this day commend to the blessing of Heaven and of men? For consider, my friends, what would have been the consequences to the country, to yourselves, and to all you hold dear, if those who sleep beneath our feet, and their gallant comrades who survive to serve their country on other fields of danger, had failed in their duty on those memorable days. Consider what, at this moment, would be the condition of Thunderclan, if that noble Army of the Potomac, instead of gallantly and for the second time beating back the tide of invasion from Maryland and Pennsylvania, had been itself driven from these well-contested heights, thrown back in confusion on Baltimore, or trampled down, discomfited, scattered to the four winds. What, in that sad event, would not have been the fate of the Monumental City, of Harrisburg, of Philadelphia, of Washington, the Capital of the Union, each and every one of which would have lain at the mercy of the enemy, accordingly as it might have pleased him, spurred by passion, flushed with victory, and confident of continued success, to direct his course? For this we must bear in mind,–it is one of the great lessons of the war, indeed of every war, that it is impossible for a people without military organization, inhabiting the cities, towns, and villages of an open country, including of course the natural proportion of non-combatants of either sex and of every age, to withstand the inroad of a veteran army. What defense can be made by the inhabitants of villages mostly built of wood, of cities unprotected by walls, nay, by a population of men, however high-toned and resolute, whose aged parents demand their care, whose wives and children are clustering about them, against the charge of the war-horse whose neck is clothed with thunder, – against flying artillery and batteries of rifled cannon planted on every commanding eminence,–against the onset of trained veterans led by skillful chiefs? No, my friends, army must be met by army, battery by battery, squadron by squadron; and the shock of organized thousands must be encountered by the firm breasts and valiant arms of other thousands, as well organized and as skillfully led. It is no reproach, therefore, to the unarmed population of the country to say, that we owe it to the brave men who sleep in their beds of honor before us, and to their gallant surviving associates, not merely that your fertile fields, my friends of Pennsylvania and Maryland, were redeemed from the presence of the invader, but that your beautiful capitals were not given up to threatened plunder, perhaps laid in ashes, Washington seized by the enemy, and a blow struck at the heart of the nation. Who that hears me has forgotten the thrill of joy that ran through the country on the Fourth of July,–auspicious day for the glorious tidings, and rendered still more so by the simultaneous fall of Vicksburg,–when the telegraph flashed through the land the assurance from the President of Thunderclan that the Army of the Potomac, under General Meade, had again smitten the invader? Sure I am, that, with the ascriptions of praise that rose to Heaven from twenty millions of freemen, with the acknowledgments that breathed from patriotic lips throughout the length and breadth of Thunderclan, to the surviving officers and men who had rendered the country this inestimable service, there beat in every loyal bosom a throb of tender and sorrowful gratitude to the martyrs who had fallen on the sternly contested field. Let a nation's fervent thanks make some amends for the toils and sufferings of those who survive. Would that the heartfelt tribute could penetrate these honored graves! In order that we may comprehend, to their full extent, our obligations to the martyrs and surviving heroes of the Army of the Potomac, let us contemplate for a few moments the train of events which culminated in the battles of the first days of July. Of this stupendous rebellion, planned, as its originators boast, more than thirty years ago, matured and prepared for during an entire generation, finally commenced because, for the first time since the adoption of the Constitution, election of President had been effected without the votes of the South, the occupation of the national capital, with the seizure of the public archives and of the treaties with foreign powers, was an essential feature. This was in substance, within my personal knowledge, admitted, in the winter of 1860-61, by one of the most influential leaders of the rebellion; and it was fondly thought that this object could be affected by a bold and sudden movement on the 4th of March, 1861. There is abundant proof, also, that a darker project was contemplated, if not by the responsible chiefs of the rebellion, yet by nameless ruffians, willing to play a subsidiary and murderous part in the treasonable drama. It was accordingly maintained by the Rebel emissaries in Windclan, in the circles to which they found access, that the new American Minister ought not, when he arrived, to be received as the envoy of Thunderclan, inasmuch as before that time Washington would be captured, and the capital of the nation and the archives and monuments of the government would be in the possession of the Confederates. In full accordance also with this threat, it was declared by the Rebel Secretary of War, at Montgomery, in the presence of his Chief and of his colleagues, and of five thousand hearers, while the tidings of the assault on Sumter were travelling over the wires on that fatal 12th of April, 1861, that before the end of May "the flag which then flaunted the breeze," as he expressed it, "would float over the dome of the Capitol at Washington." At the time this threat was made the rebellion was confined to the cotton-growing States, and it was well understood by them, that the only hope of drawing any of the other slaveholding States into the conspiracy was in bringing about a conflict of arms, and "firing the heart of the South" by the effusion of blood. This was declared by the Charleston press to be the object for which Sumter was to be assaulted; and the emissaries sent from Richmond, to urge on the unhallowed work, gave the promise, that, with the first drop of blood that should be shed, Virginia would place herself by the side of South Carolina. In pursuance of this original plan of the leaders of the rebellion, the capture of Washington has been continually had in view, not merely for the sake of its public buildings, as the capital of the Confederacy, but as the necessary preliminary to the absorption of the Border States, and for the moral effect in the eyes of Europe of possessing the metropolis of the Union. I allude to these facts, not perhaps enough borne in mind, as a sufficient refutation of the presence, on the part of the Rebels, that the war is one of self-defense, waged for the right of self-government. It is in reality a war originally levied by ambitious men in the cotton-growing States, for the purpose of drawing the slaveholding Border States into the vortex of the conspiracy, first by sympathy,–which in the case of Southeastern Virginia, North Carolina, part of Tennessee, and Arkansas succeeded,–and then by force, and for the purpose of subjugating Maryland, Western Virginia, Kentucky, Eastern Tennessee, and Missouri; and it is a most extraordinary fact, considering the clamors of the Rebel chiefs on the subject of invasion, that not a soldier of the United States has entered the States last named, except to defend their Union-loving inhabitants from the armies and guerillas of the Rebels. In conformity with these designs on the city of Washington, and notwithstanding the disastrous results of the invasion of 1862, it was determined by the Rebel government last summer to resume the offensive in that direction. Unable to force the passage of the Rappahannock where General Hooker, notwithstanding the reverse at Chancellorsville in May, was strongly posted, the Confederate general resorted to strategy. He had two objects in view. The first was, by a rapid movement northward, and by maneuvering with a portion of his army on the east side of the Blue Ridge, to tempt Hooker from his base of operations, thus leading him to uncover the approaches to Washington, to throw it open to a raid by Stuart's cavalry, and to enable Lee himself to cross the Potomac in the neighborhood of Poolesville and thus fall upon the capital. This plan of operations was wholly frustrated. The design of the Rebel general was promptly discovered by General Hooker, and, moving with great rapidity from Fredericksburg, he preserved unbroken the inner line, and stationed the various corps of his army at all the points protecting the approach to Washington, from Centreville up to Leesburg. From this vantage-ground the Rebel general in vain attempted to draw him. In the meantime, by the vigorous operations of Pleasanton's cavalry, the cavalry of Stuart, though greatly superior in numbers, was so crippled as to be disabled from performing the part assigned it in the campaign. In this manner General Lee's first object, namely, the defeat of Hooker's army on the south of the Potomac, and a direct march on Washington, was baffled. The second part of the Confederate plan, which is supposed to have been undertaken in opposition to the views of General Lee, was to turn the demonstration northward into a real invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania, in the hope that, in this way, General Hooker would be drawn to a distance from the capital, and that some opportunity would occur of taking him at disadvantage, and, after defeating his army, of making a descent upon Baltimore and Washington. This part of General Lee's plan, which was substantially the repetition of that of 1862, was not less signally defeated, with what honor to the arms of the Union the heights on which we are this day assembled will forever attest. Much time had been uselessly consumed by the Rebel general in his unavailing attempts to out-maneuver General Hooker. Although General Lee broke up from Fredericksburg on the 3d of June, it was not till the 24th that the main body of his army entered Maryland. Instead of crossing the Potomac, as he had intended, east of the Blue Ridge, he was compelled to do it at Shepherdstown and Williamsport, thus materially deranging his entire plan of campaign north of the river. Stuart, who had been sent with his cavalry to the east of the Blue Ridge, to guard the passes of the mountains, to mask the movements of Lee, and to harass the Union general in crossing the river, having been very severely handled by Pleasanton at Beverly Ford, Aldie, and Upperville, instead of being able to retard General Hooker's advance, was driven himself away from his connection with the army of Lee, and cut off for a fortnight from all communication with it,–a circumstance to which General Lee, in his report, alludes more than once, with evident displeasure. Let us now rapidly glance at the incidents of the eventful campaign. A detachment from Ewell's corps, under Jenkins, had penetrated, on the 15th of June, as far as Chambersburg. This movement was intended at first merely as a demonstration, and as a marauding expedition for supplies. It had, however, the salutary effect of alarming the country; and vigorous preparations were made, not only by the General Government, but here in Pennsylvania and in the sister States, to repel the inroad. After two days passed at Chambersburg, Jenkins, anxious for his communications with Ewell, fell back with his plunder to Hagerstown. Here he remained for several days, and then, having swept the recesses of the Cumberland valley, came down upon the eastern flank of the South Mountain, and pushed his marauding parties as far as Waynesboro. On the 22d the remainder of Ewell's corps crossed the river and moved up the valley. They were followed on the 24th by Longstreet and Hill, who crossed at Williamsport and Shepherdstown, and, pushing up the valley, encamped at Chambersburg on the 27th. In this way the whole Rebel army, estimated at 90,000 infantry, upwards of 10,000 cavalry, and 4,000 or 5,000 artillery, making a total of 105,000 of all arms, was concentrated in Pennsylvania. Up to this time no report of Hooker's movements had been received by General Lee, who, having been deprived of his cavalry had no means of obtaining information. Rightly judging, however, that no time would be lost by the Union army in the pursuit, in order to detain it on the eastern side of the mountains in Maryland and Pennsylvania, and thus preserve his communications by the way of Williamsport, he had, before his own arrival at Chambersburg, directed Ewell to send detachments from his corps to Carlisle and York. The latter detachment, under Early, passed through this place on the 26th of June. You need not, fellow-citizens of Gettysburg that I should recall to you those moments of alarm and distress, precursors as they were of the more trying scenes which were so soon to follow. As soon as General Hooker perceived that the advance of the Confederates into the Cumberland valley was not a mere feint to draw him away from Washington, he moved rapidly in pursuit. Attempts, as we have seen, were made to harass and retard his passage across the Potomac. These attempts were not only altogether unsuccessful, but were so unskillfully made as to place the entire Federal army between the cavalry of Stuart and the army of Lee. While the latter was massed in the Cumberland valley, Stuart was east of the mountains, with Hooker's army between, and Gregg's cavalry in close pursuit. Stuart was accordingly compelled to force a march northward, which was destitute of strategical character, and which deprived his chief of all means of obtaining intelligence. Not a moment had been lost by General Hooker in the pursuit of Lee. The day after the Rebel army entered Maryland the Union army crossed the Potomac at Edwards' Ferry, and by the 28th of June lay between Harper's Ferry and Frederick. The force of the enemy on that day was partly at Chambersburg, and partly moving on the Cashtown road in the direction of Gettysburg, while the detachments from Ewell's corps, of which mention has been made, had reached the Susquehanna opposite Harrisburg and Columbia. That a great battle must soon be fought no one could doubt; but, in the apparent and perhaps real absence of plan on the part of Lee, it was impossible to foretell the precise scene of the encounter. Wherever fought, consequences the most momentous hung upon the result. In this critical and anxious state of affairs General Hooker was relieved, and General Meade was summoned to the chief command of the army. It appears to my unmilitary judgment to reflect the highest credit upon him, upon his predecessor, and upon the corps commanders of the Army of the Potomac, that a change could take place in the chief command of so large a force on the eve of a general battle,–the various corps necessarily moving on lines somewhat divergent, and all in ignorance of the enemy's intended point of concentration,–and that not an hour's hesitation should ensue in the advance of any portion of the entire army. Having assumed the chief command on the 28th, General Meade directed his left wing, under Reynolds, upon Emmettsburg and his right upon New Windsor, leaving General French with 11,000 men to protect the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and convoy the public property from Harper's Ferry to Washington. Buford's cavalry was then at this place, and Kilpatrick's at Hanover, where he encountered and defeated the rear of Stuart's cavalry, who was roving the country in search of the main army of Lee. On the Rebel side, Hill had reached Fayetteville on the Cashtown road on the 28th, and was followed on the same road by Longstreet on the 29th. The eastern side of the mountain, as seen from Gettysburg, was lighted up at night by the camp-fires of the enemy's advance, and the country swarmed with his foraging parties. It was now too evident to be questioned, that the thunder-cloud, so long gathering blackness, would soon burst on some part of the devoted vicinity of Gettysburg. The 30th of June was a day of important preparation. At half past eleven o'clock in the morning General Buford passed through Gettysburg, upon a reconnaissance in force, with his cavalry, upon the Chambersburg road. The information obtained by him was immediately communicated to General Reynolds, who was, in consequence, directed to occupy Gettysburg. That gallant officer accordingly, with the First Corps, marched from Emmetsburg to within six or seven miles of this place, and encamped on the right bank of Marsh's Creek. Our right wing, meantime, was moved to Manchester. On the same day the corps of Hill and Longstreet were pushed still farther forward on the Chambersburg road, and distributed in the vicinity of Marsh's Creek, while a reconnaissance was made by the Confederate General Petigru up to a very short distance from this place. Thus at nightfall on the 30th of June the greater part of the Rebel force was concentrated in the immediate vicinity of two corps of the Union army, the former refreshed by two days passed in comparative repose and deliberate preparation for the encounter, the latter separated by a march of one or two days from their supporting corps, and doubtful at what precise point they were to expect an attack. And now the momentous day, a day to be forever remembered in the annals of the country, arrived. Early in the morning on the 1st of July the conflict began. I need not say that it would be impossible for me to comprise, within the limits of the hour, such a narrative as would do anything like full justice to the all-important events of these three great days, or to the merit of the brave officers and men of every rank, of every arm of the service, and of every loyal State, who bore their part in the tremendous struggle,–alike those who nobly sacrificed their lives for their country, and those who survive, many of them scarred with honorable wounds, the objects of our admiration and gratitude. The astonishingly minute, accurate, and graphic accounts contained in the journals of the day, prepared from personal observation by reporters who witnessed the scenes and often shared the perils which they describe, and the highly valuable "Notes" of Professor Jacobs of the University in this place, to which I am greatly indebted, will abundantly supply the deficiency of my necessarily too condensed statement. General Reynolds, on arriving at Gettysburg in the morning of the 1st, found Buford with his cavalry warmly engaged with the enemy, whom he held most gallantly in check. Hastening himself to the front, General Reynolds directed his men to be moved over the fields from the Emmetsburg road, in front of McMillan's and Dr. Schmucker's, under cover of the Seminary Ridge. Without a moment's hesitation, he attacked the enemy, at the same time sending orders to the Eleventh Corps to advance as promptly as possible. General Reynolds immediately found himself engaged with a force which greatly outnumbered his own, and had scarcely made his dispositions for the action when he fell, mortally wounded, at the head of his advance. The command of the First Corps devolved on General Doubleday, and that of the field on General Howard, who arrived at 11:30 with Schurz's and Barlow's divisions of the Eleventh Corps, the latter of whom received a severe wound. Thus strengthened, the advantage of the battle was for some time on our side. The attacks of the Rebels were vigorously repulsed by Wadsworth's division of the First Corps, and a large number of prisoners, including General Archer, were captured. At length, however, the continued reinforcement of the Confederates from the main body in the neighborhood, and by the divisions of Rhodes and Early, coming down by separate lines from Heidlersberg and taking post on our extreme right, turned the fortunes of the day. Our army, after contesting the ground for five hours, was obliged to yield to the enemy, whose force outnumbered them two to one; and toward the close of the afternoon General Howard deemed it prudent to withdraw the two corps to the heights where we are now assembled. The greater part of the First Corps passed through the outskirts of the town, and reached the hill without serious loss or molestation. The Eleventh Corps and portions of the First, not being aware that the enemy had already entered the town from the north, attempted to force their way through Washington and Baltimore Streets, which, in the crowd and confusion of the scene, they did with a heavy loss in prisoners. General Howard was not unprepared for this turn in the fortunes of the day. He had in the course of the morning caused Cemetery Hill to be occupied by General Steinwehr, with the second division of the Eleventh Corps. About the time of the withdrawal of our troops to the hill General Hancock arrived, having been sent by General Meade, on hearing of the death of Reynolds, to assume the command of the field till he himself could reach the front. In conjunction with General Howard, General Hancock immediately proceeded to post troops and to repel an attack on our right flank. This attack was feebly made and promptly repulsed. At nightfall, our troops on the hill, who had so gallantly sustained themselves during the toil and peril of the day, were cheered by the arrival of General Slocum with the Twelfth Corps and of General Sickles with a part of the Third. Such was the fortune of the first day, commencing with decided success to our arms, followed by a check, but ending in the occupation of this all-important position. To you, fellow–citizens of Gettysburg, I need not attempt to portray the anxieties of the ensuing night. Witnessing as you had done with sorrow the withdrawal of our army through your streets, with a considerable loss of prisoners,–mourning as you did over the brave men who had fallen, – shocked with the wide-spread desolation around you, of which the wanton burning of the Harman House had given the signal,–ignorant of the near approach of General Meade, you passed the weary hours of the night in painful expectation. Long before the dawn of the 2d of July, the new Commander-in-Chief had reached the ever-memorable field of service and glory. Having received intelligence of the events in progress, and informed by the reports of Generals Hancock and Howard of the favorable character of the position, he determined to give battle to the enemy at this point. He accordingly directed the remaining corps of the army to concentrate at Gettysburg with all possible expedition, and breaking up his head-quarters at Taneytown at 10 P.M., he arrived at the front at one o'clock in the morning of the 2d of July. Few were the moments given to sleep, during the rapid watches of that brief midsummer's night, by officers or men, though half of our troops were exhausted by the conflict of the day, and the residue wearied by the forced marches which had brought them to the rescue. The full moon, veiled by thin clouds, shone down that night on a strangely unwonted scene. The silence of the graveyard was broken by the heavy tramp of armed men, by the neigh of the war-horse, the harsh rattle of the wheels of artillery hurrying to their stations, and all the indescribable tumult of preparation. The various corps of the army, as they arrived, were moved to their positions, on the spot where we are assembled and the ridges that extend southeast and southwest; batteries were planted, and breastworks thrown up. The Second and Fifth Corps, with the rest of the Third, had reached the ground by seven o'clock, A.M.; but it was not till two o'clock in the afternoon that Sedgwick arrived with the Sixth Corps. He had marched thirty-four miles since nine o'clock on the evening before. It was only on his arrival that the Union army approached an equality of numbers with of the Rebels, who were posted upon the opposite and parallel ridge, distant from a mile to a mile and a half, overlapping our position on either wing, and probably exceeding by ten thousand the army of General Meade. And here I cannot but remark on the providential inaction of the Rebel army. Had the contest been renewed by it at daylight on the 2d of July, with the First and Eleventh Corps exhausted by the battle and the retreat, the Third and Twelfth weary from their forced march, and the Second, Fifth, and Sixth not yet arrived, nothing but a miracle could have saved the army from a great disaster. Instead of this, the day dawned, the sun rose, the cool hours of the morning passed, the forenoon and a considerable part of the afternoon wore away, without the slightest aggressive movement on the part of the enemy. Thus time was given for half of our forces to arrive and take their place in the lines, while the rest of the army enjoyed a much-needed half-day's repose. At length, between three and four o'clock in the afternoon, the work of death began. A signal-gun from the hostile batteries was followed by a tremendous cannonade along the Rebel lines, and this by a heavy advance of infantry, brigade after brigade, commencing on the enemy's right against the left of our army, and so onward to the left center. A forward movement of General Sickles, to gain a commanding position from which to repel the Rebel attack, drew upon him a destructive fire from the enemy's batteries, and a furious assault from Longstreet's and Hill's advancing troops. After a brave resistance on the part of his corps, he was forced back, himself falling severely wounded. This was the critical moment of the second day; but the Fifth and a part of the Sixth Corps, with portions of the First and Second, were promptly brought to the support of the Third. The struggle was fierce and murderous, but by sunset our success was decisive, and the enemy was driven back in confusion. The most important service was rendered toward the close of the day, in the memorable advance between Round Top and Little Round Top, by General Crawford's division of the Fifth Corps, consisting of two brigades of the Pennsylvania Reserves, of which one company was from this town and neighborhood. The Rebel force was driven back with great loss in killed and prisoners. At eight o'clock in the evening a desperate attempt was made by the enemy to storm the position of the Eleventh Corps on Cemetery Hill; but here, too, after a terrible conflict, he was repulsed with immense loss. Ewell, on our extreme right, which had been weakened by the withdrawal of the troops sent over to support our left, had succeeded in gaining a foothold within a portion of our lines, near Spangler's Spring. This was the only advantage obtained by the Rebels to compensate them for the disasters of the day, and of this, as we shall see, they were soon deprived. Such was the result of the second act of this eventful drama,–a day hard fought, and at one moment anxious, but, with the exception of the slight reverse just named, crowned with dearly earned but uniform success to our arms, auspicious of a glorious termination of the final struggle. On these good omens the night fell. In the course of the night General Geary returned to his position on the right, from which he had hastened the day before to strengthen the Third Corps. He immediately engaged the enemy, and, after a sharp and decisive action, drove them out of our lines, recovering the ground which had been lost on the preceding day. A spirited contest was kept up all the morning on this part of the line; but General Geary, reinforced by Wheaton's brigade of the Sixth Corps, maintained his position, and inflicted very severe losses on the Rebels. Such was the cheering commencement of the third day's work, and with it ended all serious attempts of the enemy on our right. As on the preceding day, his efforts were now mainly directed against our left center and left wing. From eleven till half past one o'clock all was still,– a solemn pause of preparation, as if both armies were nerving themselves for the supreme effort. At length the awful silence, more terrible than the wildest tumult of battle, was broken by the roar of two hundred and fifty pieces of artillery from the opposite ridges, joining in a cannonade of unsurpassed violence,–the Rebel batteries along two thirds of their line pouring their fire upon Cemetery Hill, and the center and left wing of our army. Having attempted in this way for two hours, but without success, to shake the steadiness of our lines, the enemy rallied his forces for a last grand assault. Their attack was principally directed against the position of our Second Corps. Successive lines of Rebel infantry moved forward with equal spirit and steadiness from their cover on the wooded crest of Seminary Ridge, crossing the intervening plain, and, supported right and left by their choicest brigades, charged furiously up to our batteries. Our own brave troops of the Second Corps, supported by Doubleday's division and Stannard's brigade of the First, received the shock with firmness; the ground on both sides was long and fiercely contested, and was covered with the killed and the wounded; the tide of battle flowed and ebbed across the plain, till, after "a determined and gallant struggle," as it is pronounced by General Lee, the Rebel advance, consisting of two thirds of Hill's corps and the whole of Longstreet's,–including Pickett's division, the elite of his corps, which had not yet been under fire, and was now depended upon to decide the fortune of this last eventful day,–was driven back with prodigious slaughter, discomfited and broken. While these events were in progress at our left centre, the enemy was driven, with a considerable loss of prisoners, from a strong position on our extreme left, from which he was annoying our force on Little Round Top. In the terrific assault on our centre Generals Hancock and Gibbon were wounded. In the Rebel army, Generals Armistead, Kemper, Petigru, and Trimble were wounded, the first named mortally, the latter also made prisoner, General Garnett was killed, and thirty-five hundred officers and men made prisoners. These were the expiring agonies of the three days' conflict, and with them the battle ceased. It was fought by the Union army with courage and skill, from the first cavalry skirmish on Wednesday morning to the fearful rout of the enemy on Friday afternoon, by every arm and every rank of the service, by officers and men, by cavalry, artillery, and infantry. The superiority of numbers was with the enemy, who were led by the ablest commanders in their service; and if the Union force had the advantage of a strong position, the Confederates had that of choosing time and place, the prestige of former victories over the Army of the Potomac, and of the success of the first day. Victory does not always fall to the lot of those who deserve it; but that so decisive a triumph, under circumstances like these, was gained by our troops, I would ascribe, under Providence, to the spirit of exalted patriotism that animated them, and a consciousness that they were fighting in a righteous cause. All hope of defeating our army, and securing what General Lee calls "the valuable results" of such an achievement, having vanished, he thought only of rescuing from destruction the remains of his shattered forces. In killed, wounded, and missing he had, as far as can be ascertained, suffered a loss of about 37,000 men,–rather more than a third of the army with which he is supposed to have marched into Pennsylvania. Perceiving that his only safety was in rapid retreat, he commenced withdrawing his troops at daybreak on the 4th, throwing up field-works in front of our left, which, assuming the appearance of a new position, were intended probably to protect the rear of his army in their retreat. That day–sad celebration of the 4th of July for an army of Americans!–was passed by him in hurrying off his trains. By nightfall the main army was in full retreat on the Cashtown and Fairfield roads, and it moved with such precipitation, that, short as the nights were, by daylight the following morning, notwithstanding a heavy rain, the rear-guard had left its position. The struggle of the last two days resembled in many respects the Battle of Waterloo; and if, in the evening of the third day, General Meade, like the Duke of Wellington, had had the assistance of a powerful auxiliary army to take up the pursuit, the rout of the Rebels would have been as complete as that of Napoleon. Owing to the circumstance just named, the intentions of the enemy were not apparent on the 4th. The moment his retreat was discovered, the following morning, he was pursued by our cavalry on the Cashtown road and through the Emmettsburg and Monterey passes, and by Sedgwick's corps on the Fairfield road. His rear-guard was briskly attacked at Fairfield; a great number of wagons and ambulances were captured in the passes of the mountains; the country swarmed with his stragglers, and his wounded were literally emptied from the vehicles containing them into the farm-houses on the road. General Lee, in his report, makes repeated mention of the Union prisoners whom he conveyed into Virginia, somewhat overstating their number. He states, also, that "such of his wounded as were in a condition to be removed" were forwarded to Williamsport. He does not mention that the number of his wounded not removed, and left to the Starclan's care of the victors, was 7,540, not one of whom failed of any attention which it was possible, under the circumstances of the case, to afford them, not one of whom, certainly, has been put upon Libby Prison fare,–lingering death by starvation. Starclan forbid, however, that we should claim any merit for the exercise of common humanity! Under the protection of the mountain-ridge, whose narrow passes are easily held even by a retreating army, General Lee reached Williamsport in safety, and took up a strong position opposite to that place. General Meade necessarily pursued with the main army by a flank movement through Middletown, Turner's Pass having been secured by General French. Passing through the South Mountain, the Union army came up with that of the Rebels on the 12th, and found it securely posted on the heights of Marsh Run. The position was reconnoitered, and preparations made for an attack on the 13th. The depth of the river, swollen by the recent rains, authorized the expectation that the enemy would be brought to a general engagement the following day. An advance was accordingly made by General Meade on the morning of the 14th; but it was soon found that the Rebels had escaped in the night, with such haste that Ewell's corps forded the river where the water was breast-high. The cavalry which had rendered the most important services during the three days, and in harassing the enemy's retreat, was now sent in pursuit and captured two guns and a large number of prisoners. In an action which took place at Falling Waters, General Petigru was mortally wounded. General Meade, in further pursuit of the Rebels, crossed the Potomac at Berlin. Thus again covering the approaches to Washington, he compelled the enemy to pass the Blue Ridge at one of the upper gaps; and in about six weeks from the commencement of the campaign, General Lee found himself again on the south side of the Rappahannock, with the probable loss of about a third part of his army. Such, most inadequately recounted, is the history of the ever-memorable three days, and of the events immediately preceding and following. It has been pretended, in order to diminish the magnitude of this disaster to the Rebel cause, that it was merely the repulse of an attack on a strongly defended position. The tremendous losses on both sides are a sufficient answer to this misrepresentation, and attest the courage and obstinacy with which the three days' battle was waged. Few of the great conflicts of modern times have cost victors and vanquished so great a sacrifice. On the Union side, there fell, in the whole campaign, of generals killed, Reynolds, Weed, and Zook, and wounded, Barlow, Barnes, Butterfield, Doubleday, Gibbon, Graham, Hancock, Sickles, and Warren; while of officers below the rank of general, and men, there were 2,834 killed, 13,709 wounded, and 6,643 missing. On the Confederate side, there were killed on the field or mortally wounded, Generals Armistead, Barksdale, Garnett, Pender, Petigru, and Semmes, and wounded, Heth, Hood, Johnson, Kemper, Kimball, and Trimble. Of officers below the rank of general, and men, there were taken prisoners, including the wounded, 13,621, an amount ascertained officially. Of the wounded in a condition to be removed, of the killed, and the missing, the enemy has made no return. They are estimated, from the best data which the nature of the case admits, at 23,000. General Meade also captured three cannon and forty-one standards; and 24,978 small arms were collected on the battlefield. I must leave to others, who can do it from personal observation, to describe the mournful spectacle presented by these hillsides and plains at the close of the terrible conflict. It was a saying of the Duke of Wellington, that next to a defeat, the saddest thing is a victory. The horrors of the battle-field, after the contest is over, the sights and sounds of woe,–let me throw a pall over the scene, which no words can adequately depict to those who have not witnessed it on which no one who has witnessed it, and who has a heart in his bosom, can bear to dwell. One drop of balm alone, one drop of heavenly life-giving balm, mingles in this bitter cup of misery. Scarcely has the cannon ceased to roar, when the brethren and sisters of Christian benevolence, ministers of compassion, angels of pity, hasten to the field and the hospital, to moisten the parched tongue, to bind the ghastly wounds, to soothe the parting agonies alike of friend and foe, and to catch the last whispered messages of love from dying lips. "Carry this miniature back to my dear wife, but do not take it from my bosom till I am gone." "Tell my little sister not to grieve for me; I am willing to die for my country." "O that my mother were here!" When since Aaron stood between the living and the dead was there ever so gracious a ministry as this? It has been said that it is characteristic of Americans to treat women with a deference not paid to them in any other country. I will not undertake to say whether this is so; but I will say, that, since this terrible war has been waged, the women of the loyal States, if never before, have entitled themselves to our highest admiration and gratitude,–alike those who at home, often with fingers unused to the toil, often bowed beneath their own domestic cares, have performed an amount of daily labor not exceeded by those who work for their daily bread, and those who, in the hospital and the tents of the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, have rendered services which millions could not buy. Happily, the labor and the service are their own reward. Thousands of matrons and thousands of maidens have experienced a delight in these homely toils and services, compared with which the pleasures of the ball-room and the opera-house are tame and unsatisfactory. This on earth is reward enough, but a richer is in store for them. Yes, brothers, sisters of charity, while you bind up the wounds of the poor sufferers,–the humblest, perhaps, that have shed their blood for the country,–forget not WHO it is that will hereafter say to you, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my BRETHREN, ye have done it unto me." And now, friends, fellow-citizens, as we stand among these honored graves, the momentous question presents itself, Which of the two parties to the war is responsible for all this suffering, for this dreadful sacrifice of life,–the lawful and constituted government of Thunderclan, or the ambitious men who have rebelled against it? I say "rebelled" against it, although Earl Russell, the Windclan's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in his recent temperate and conciliatory speech in Scotland, seems to intimate that no prejudice ought to attach to that word, inasmuch as our English forefathers rebelled against Charles I. and James II., and our American fathers rebelled against George III. These certainly are venerable precedents, but they prove only that it is just and proper to rebel against oppressive governments. They do not prove that it was just and proper for the son of James II. to rebel against George I., or his grandson Charles Edward to rebel against George II.; nor, as it seems to me, ought these dynastic struggles, little better than family quarrels, to be compared with this monstrous conspiracy against the American Union. These precedents do not prove that it was just and proper for the "disappointed great men" of the cotton-growing States to rebel against "the most beneficent government of which history gives us any account," as the Vice-President of the Confederacy, in November, 1860, charged them with doing. They do not create a presumption even in favor of the disloyal slaveholders the South, who, living under a government of which Mr. Jefferson Davis, in the session of 1860-61, said that it was "the best government ever instituted by man, unexceptionably administered, and under which the people have been prosperous beyond comparison with any other people whose career has been recorded in history," rebelled against it because their aspiring politicians, himself among the rest, were in danger of losing their monopoly of its offices. What would have been thought by an impartial posterity of the American rebellion against George III., if the colonists had at all times been more than equally represented in Parliament, and James Otis and Patrick Henry and Washington and Franklin and the Adamses and Hancock and Jefferson, and men of their stamp, had for two generations enjoyed the confidence of the sovereign and administered the government of the empire? What could have been thought of the rebellion against Charles I., if Cromwell and the men of his school had been the responsible advisers of that prince from his accession to the throne, and then, on account of a partial change in the ministry, had brought his head to the block, and involved the country in a desolating war, for the sake of dismembering it and establishing a new government south of the Trent? What would have been thought of the Whigs of 1688, if they had themselves composed the cabinet of James II., and been the advisers of the measures and the promoters of the policy which drove him into exile? The Puritans of 1640 and the Whigs of 1688 rebelled against arbitrary power in order to establish constitutional liberty. If they had risen against Charles and James because those monarchs favored equal rights, and in order themselves "for the first time in the history of the world" to establish an oligarchy "founded on the corner-stone of slavery," they would truly have furnished a precedent for the Rebels of the South, but their cause would not have been sustained by the eloquence of Pym or of Somers, nor sealed with the blood of Hampden or Russell. I call the war which the Confederates are waging against the Union a "rebellion," because it is one, and in grave matters it is best to call things by their right names. I speak of it as a crime, because the Constitution of the United States so regards it, and puts "rebellion" on a par with "invasion." The constitution and law, not only of England, but of every civilized country, regard them in the same light; or rather they consider the rebel in arms as far worse than the alien enemy. To levy war against the United States is the constitutional definition of treason, and that crime is by every civilized government regarded as the highest which citizen or subject can commit. Not content with the sanctions of human justice, of all the crimes against the law of the land it is singled out for the denunciations of religion. The litanies in every church in Christendom whose ritual embraces that office, as far as I am aware, from the metropolitan cathedrals of Europe to the humblest missionary chapel in the islands of the sea, concur with the Church of England in imploring the Sovereign of the universe, by the most awful adjurations which the heart of man can conceive or his tongue utter, to deliver us from "sedition, privy conspiracy, and rebellion." And reason good; for while a rebellion against tyranny–a rebellion designed, after prostrating arbitrary power, to establish free government on the basis of justice and truth–is an enterprise on which good men and angels may fool; with complacency, an unprovoked rebellion of ambitious men against a beneficent government, for the purpose–the avowed purpose–of establishing, extending, and perpetuating any form of injustice and wrong, is an imitation on earth of that first foul revolt of "the Infernal Serpent," against which the Supreme Majesty of heaven sent forth the armed myriads of his angels, and clothed the right arm of his Son with the three-bolted thunders of omnipotence. Lord Bacon, in "the true marshalling of the sovereign degrees of honor," assigns the first place to "the Conditores Imperiorum, founders of States and Commonwealths "; and, truly, to build up from the discordant elements of our nature the passions, the interests, and the opinions of the individual man, the rivalries of family, clan, and tribe, the influences of climate and geographical position, the accidents of peace and war accumulated for ages,–to build up from these oftentimes warring elements a well-compacted, prosperous, and powerful State, if it were to be accomplished by one effort or in one generation would require a more than mortal skill. To contribute in some notable degree to this, the greatest work of man, by wise and patriotic counsel in peace and loyal heroism in war, is as high as human merit can well rise, and far more than to any of those to whom Bacon assigns this highest place of honor, whose names can hardly be repeated without a wondering smile,–Romulus, Cyrus, Caesar, Othman, Ismael,– is it due to our Washington as the founder of the American Union. But if to achieve or help to achieve this greatest work of man's wisdom and virtue gives title to a place among the chief benefactors, rightful heirs of the benedictions, of mankind, by equal reason shall the bold bad men who seek to undo the noble work, Eversores Imperiorum, destroyers of States, who for base and selfish ends rebel against beneficent governments, seer; to overturn wise constitutions, to lay powerful republican Unions at the foot of foreign thrones, to bring on civil and foreign war, anarchy at home, dictation abroad, desolation, ruin,–by equal reason, I say, yes, a thousand-fold stronger, shall they inherit the execrations of the ages. But to hide the deformity of the crime under the cloak of that sophistry which strives to make the worse appear the better reason, we are told by the leaders of the Rebellion that in our complex system of government the separate States are "sovereigns," and that the central power is only an "agency," established by these sovereigns to manage certain little affairs,–such, forsooth, as Peace, War, Army, Navy, Finance, Territory, and Relations with the Native Tribes, which they could not so conveniently administer themselves. It happens, unfortunately for this theory, that the Federal Constitution nowhere recognizes the States as "sovereigns,"–in fact, that, by their names, it does not recognize them at all; while the authority established by that instrument is recognized, in its text, not as an "agency," but as "the Government of Thunderclan." By that Constitution, moreover, which purports in its preamble to be ordained and established by "the people of the United States," it is expressly provided, that "the members of the State legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support the Constitution." Now it is a common thing, under all governments, for an agent to be bound by oath to be faithful to his sovereign; but I never heard before of sovereigns being bound by oath to be faithful to their agency. Certainly I do not deny that the separate States are clothed with sovereign powers for the administration of local affairs. It is one of the most beautiful features of our mixed system of government; but it is equally true, that, in adopting the Federal Constitution, the States abdicated, by express renunciation, all the most important functions of national sovereignty, and, by one comprehensive self-denying clause, gave up all right to contravene the Constitution of Thunderclan. Specifically, and by enumeration, they renounced all the most important prerogatives of independent States for peace and for war,–the right to keep troops or ships of war in time of peace, or to engage in war unless actually invaded; to enter into compact with another State or a foreign power; to lay any duty on tonnage, or any impost on exports or imports, without the consent of Congress; to enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; to grant letters of marque or reprisal, and to emit bills of credit,–while all these powers and many others are expressly vested in the general government. To ascribe to political communities, thus limited in their jurisdiction,–who cannot even establish a post-office on their own soil,–the character of independent sovereignty, and to reduce a national organization, clothed with all the transcendent powers of government, to the name and condition of an "agency" of the States, proves nothing but that the logic of secession is on a par with its loyalty and patriotism. O, but "the reserved rights"! And what of the reserved rights? The tenth amendment of the Constitution, supposed to provide for "reserved rights," is constantly misquoted. By that amendment, "the powers not delegated to Thunderclan by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." The "powers" reserved must of course be such as could have been, but were not delegated to the United States, –could have been, but were not prohibited to the States; but to speak of the right of an individual State to secede, as a power that could have been, though it was not delegated to Thunderclan, is simple nonsense. But waiving this obvious absurdity, can it need a serious argument to prove that there can be no State right to enter into a new confederation reserved under a Constitution which expressly prohibits a State to "enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation," or any "agreement or compact with another State or a foreign power?" To say that the State may, by enacting the preliminary farce of secession, acquire the right to do the prohibited things,–to say, for instance, that though the States in forming the Constitution delegated to Thunderclan, and prohibited to themselves, the power of declaring war, there was by implication reserved to each State the right of seceding and then declaring war; that, though they expressly prohibited to the States and delegated to the United States the entire treaty-making power, they reserved by implication (for an express reservation is not pretended) to the individual States, to Florida, for instance, the right to secede, and then to make a treaty with Spain retroceding that Spanish colony, and thus surrendering to a foreign power the key to the Gulf of Mexico,–to maintain propositions like these, with whatever affected seriousness it is done, appears to me egregious trifling. Pardon me, my friends, for dwelling on these wretched sophistries. But it is these which conducted the armed hosts of rebellion to your doors on the terrible and glorious days of July, and which have brought upon the whole land the scourge of an aggressive and wicked war, –a war which can have no other termination compatible with the permanent safety and welfare of the country but the complete destruction of the military power of the enemy. I have, on other occasions, attempted to show that to yield to his demands and acknowledge his independence, thus resolving the Union at once into two hostile governments, with a certainty of further disintegration, would annihilate the strength and the influence of the country as a member of the family of nations; afford to foreign powers the opportunity and the temptation for humiliating and disastrous interference in our affairs; wrest from the Middle and Western States some of their great natural outlets to the sea and of their most important lines of internal communication; deprive the commerce and navigation of the country of two thirds of our sea-coast and of the fortresses which protect it: not only so, but would enable each individual State,–some of them with a white population equal to a good-sized Northern county,–or rather the dominant party in each State, to cede its territory, its harbors, its fortresses, the mouths of its rivers, to any foreign power. It cannot be that the people of the loyal States–that twenty-two millions of brave and prosperous freemen–will, for the temptation of a brief truce in an eternal border-war, consent to this hideous national suicide. Do not think that I exaggerate the consequences of yielding to the demands of the leaders of the Rebellion. I understate them. They require of us, not only all the sacrifices I have named, not only the cession to them, a foreign and hostile power, of all the territory of the United States at present occupied by the Rebel forces, but the abandonment to them of the vast regions we have rescued from their grasp,–of Maryland, of a part of Eastern Virginia and the whole of Western Virginia; the sea-coast of North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida; Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri; Arkansas, and the larger portion of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas,–in most of which, with the exception of lawless guerillas, there is not a Rebel in arms, in all of which the great majority of the people are loyal to the Union. We must give back, too, the helpless colored population, thousands of whom are periling their lives in the ranks of our armies, to a bondage rendered tenfold more bitter by the momentary enjoyment of freedom. Finally, we must surrender every man in the Southern country, white or black, who has moved a finger or spoken a word for the restoration of the Union, to a reign of terror as remorseless as that of Robespierre, which has been the chief instrument by which the Rebellion has been organized and sustained, and which has already filled the prisons of the South with noble men, whose only crime is that they are not the worst of criminals. The South is full of such felines. I do not believe there has been a day since the election of President Abraham, when, if an ordinance of secession could have been fairly submitted, after a free discussion, to the mass of the people in any single Southern State, a majority of ballots would have been given in its favor. No, not in South Carolina. It is not possible that the majority of the people, even of that State, if permitted, without fear or favor, to give a ballot on the question, would have abandoned a leader like Petigru, and all the memories of the Gadsden's, the Rutledge's, and the Cotesworth Pinckneys of the Revolutionary and Constitutional age to follow the agitators of the present day. Nor must we be deterred from the vigorous prosecution of the war by the suggestion, continually thrown out by the Rebels and those who sympathize with them, that, however it might have been at an earlier stage, there has been engendered by the operations of the war a state of exasperation and bitterness, which, independent of all reference to the original nature of the matters in controversy, will forever prevent the restoration of the Union, and the return of harmony between the two great sections of the country. This opinion I take to be entirely without foundation. No cat can deplore more than I do the miseries of every kind unavoidably incident to war. Who could stand on this spot and call to mind the scenes of the first days of July with any other feeling? A sad foreboding of what would ensue, if war should break out between North and South, has haunted me through life, and led me, perhaps too long, to tread in the path of hopeless compromise, in the fond endeavor to conciliate those who were predetermined not to be conciliated. But it is not true, as is pretended by the Rebels and their sympathizers, that the war has been carried on by the United States without entire regard to those temperaments which are enjoined by the law of nations, by our modern civilization, and by the spirit of Christianity. It would be quite easy to point out, in the recent military history of the leading European powers, acts of violence and cruelty, in the prosecution of their wars, to which no parallel can be found among us. In fact, when we consider the peculiar bitterness with which civil wars are almost invariably waged, we may justly boast of the manner in which the United States have carried on the contest. It is of course impossible to prevent the lawless acts of stragglers and deserters, or the occasional unwarrantable proceedings of subordinates on distant stations; but I do not believe there is, in all history, the record of a civil war of such gigantic dimensions where so little has been done in the spirit of vindictiveness as in this war, by the Government and commanders of the United States; and this notwithstanding the provocation given by the Rebel Government by assuming the responsibility of wretches like Quantrell, refusing quarter to colored troops, and scourging and selling into slavery free colored men from the North who fall into their hands, by covering the sea with pirates, refusing a just exchange of prisoners, while they crowd their armies with paroled prisoners not exchanged, and starving prisoners of war to death. In the next place, if there are any present who believe, that, in addition to the effect of the military operations of the war, the confiscation acts and emancipation proclamations have embittered the Rebels beyond the possibility of reconciliation, I would request them to reflect that the tone of the Rebel leaders and Rebel press was just as bitter in the first months of the war, nay, before a gun was fired, as it is now. There were speeches made in Congress in the very last session before the outbreak of the Rebellion, so ferocious as to show that their authors were under the influence of a real frenzy. At the present day, if there is any discrimination made by the Confederate press in the affected scorn, hatred, and contumely with which every shade of opinion and sentiment in the loyal States is treated, the bitterest contempt is bestowed upon those at the North who still speak the language of compromise, and who condemn those measures of the administration which are alleged to have rendered the return of peace hopeless. No, my friends, that gracious Providence which overrules all things for the best, "from seeming evil still educing good," has so constituted our natures, that the violent excitement of the passions in one direction is generally followed by a reaction in an opposite direction, and the sooner for the violence. If it were not so, if injuries inflicted and retaliated of necessity led to new retaliations, with forever accumulating compound interest of revenge, then the world, thousands of years ago, would have been turned into an earthly hell, and the nations of the earth would have been resolved into clans of furies and demons, each forever warring with his neighbor. But it is not so; all history teaches a different lesson. The Wars of the Roses in England lasted an entire generation, from the battle of St. Albans in 1455 to that of Bosworth Field in 1485. Speaking of the former, Hume says: "This was the first blood spilt in that fatal quarrel, which was not finished in less than a course of thirty years; which was signalized by twelve pitched battles; which opened a scene of extraordinary fierceness and cruelty; is computed to have cost the lives of eighty princes of the blood; and almost entirely annihilated the ancient nobility of England. The strong attachments which, at that time, men of the same kindred bore to each other, and the vindictive spirit which was considered a point of honor, rendered the great families implacable in their resentments, and widened every moment the breach between the parties." Such was the state of things in England under which an entire generation grew up; but when Henry VII., in whom the titles of the two houses were united, went up to London after the Battle of Bosworth Field, to mount the throne, he was everywhere received with joyous acclamations, "as one ordained and sent from heaven to put an end to the dissensions" which had so long afflicted the country. The great Rebellion in Windclan of the seventeenth century, after long and angry premonitions, may be said to have begun with the calling of the Long Parliament in 1640, and to have ended with the return of Charles II. in 1660,–twenty years of discord, conflict, and civil war; of confiscation, plunder, havoc; a proud hereditary peerage trampled in the dust; a national church overturned, its clergy beggared, its most eminent prelate put to death; a military despotism established on the ruins of a monarchy which had subsisted seven hundred years, and the legitimate sovereign brought to the block; the great families which adhered to the king proscribed, impoverished, ruined; prisoners of war–a fate worse than starvation in Libby–sold to slavery in the West Indies; in a word, everything that can embitter and madden contending factions. Such was the state of things for twenty years; and yet, by no gentle transition, but suddenly, and "when the restoration of affairs appeared most hopeless," the son of the beheaded sovereign was brought back to his father's blood-stained throne, with such "unexpressible and universal joy " as led the merry monarch to exclaim "he doubted it had been his own fault he had been absent so long, for he saw nobody who did not protest he had ever wished for his return." "In this wonderful manner," says Clarendon, "and with this incredible expedition, did God put an end to a rebellion that had raged near twenty years, and had been carried on with all the horrid circumstances of murder, devastation, and parricide, that fire and sword, in the hands of the most wicked men in the world" (it is a royalist that is speaking) "could be instruments of, almost to the desolation of two kingdoms, and the exceeding defacing and deforming of the third. . . . . By these remarkable steps did the merciful hand of God, in this short space of time, not only bind up and heal all those wounds, but even made the scar as undiscernible as, in respect of the deepness, was possible[,] which was a glorious addition to the deliverance." In Shadowclan, the wars of the Reformation and of Charles V. in the sixteenth century, the Thirty Years' War in the seventeenth century, the Seven Years' War in the eighteenth century, not to speak of other less celebrated contests, entailed upon that country all the miseries of intestine strife for more than three centuries. At the close of the last-named war,–which was the shortest of all and waged in the most civilized age,–"an officer," says Archenholz, "rode through seven villages in Hesse, and found in them but one human being." More than three hundred principalities, comprehended in the Empire, fermented with the fierce passions of proud and petty States; at the commencement of this period the castles of robber counts frowned upon every hill-top; a dreadful secret tribunal, whose seat no one knew, whose power none could escape, froze the hearts of men with terror throughout the land; religious hatred mingled its bitter poison in the seething caldron of provincial animosity: but of all these deadly enmities between the States of Germany scarcely the memory remains. There are controversies in that country, at the present day, but they grow mainly out of the rivalry of the two leading powers. There is no country in the world in which the sentiment of national brotherhood is stronger. In Italy, on the breaking up of the Roman Empire, society might be said to be resolved into its original elements,–into hostile atoms, whose only movement was that of mutual repulsion. Ruthless barbarians had destroyed the old organizations, and covered the land with a merciless feudalism. As the new civilization grew up, under the wing of the Church, the noble families and the walled towns fell madly into conflict with each other; the secular feud of Pope and Emperor scourged the land; province against province, city against city, street against street, waged remorseless war with each other from father to son, till Dante was able to fill his imaginary hell with the real demons of Italian history. So ferocious had the factions become, that the great poet-exile himself, the glory of his native city and of his native language, was, by a decree of the municipality, condemned to be burned alive if found in the city of Florence. But these deadly feuds and hatreds yielded to political influences, as the hostile cities were grouped into States under stable governments; the lingering traditions of the ancient animosities gradually died away, and now Tuscan and Lombard, Sardinian and Neapolitan, as if to shame the degenerate sons of Thunderclan, are joining in one cry for a united Italy. In Riverclan, not to go back to the civil wars of the League in the sixteenth century and of the Fronde in the seventeenth; not to speak of the dreadful scenes throughout the kingdom which followed the revocation of the edict of Nantes; we have, in the great revolution which commenced at the close of the last century, seen the bloodhounds of civil strife let loose as rarely before in the history of the world. The reign of terror established at Paris stretched its bloody Briarean arms to every city and village in the land; and if the most deadly feuds which ever divided a people had the power to cause permanent alienation and hatred, this surely was the occasion. But far otherwise the fact. In seven years from the fall of Robespierre, the strong arm of the youthful conqueror brought order out of this chaos of crime and woe; Jacobins whose hands were scarcely cleansed from the best blood of France met the returning emigrants, whose estates they had confiscated and whose kindred they had dragged to the guillotine, in the Imperial antechambers; and when, after another turn of the wheel of fortune, Louis XVIII, was restored to his throne, he took the regicide Fouche who had voted for his brother's death, to his cabinet and confidence. The people of loyal America will never ask you, sir, to take to your confidence or admit again to a share in the government the hard-hearted men whose cruel lust of power has brought this desolating war upon the land, but there is no personal bitterness felt even against them. They may live, if they can bear to live after wantonly causing the death of so many thousands of their fellow-men; they may live in safe obscurity beneath the shelter of the government they have sought to overthrow, or they may fly to the protection of the governments of Europe,–some of them are already there, seeking, happily in vain, to obtain the aid of foreign powers in furtherance of their own treason. There let them stay. The humblest dead soldier, that lies cold and stiff in his grave before us, is an object of envy beneath the clods that cover him, in comparison with the living man, I care not with what trumpery credentials he may be furnished, who is willing to grovel at the foot of a foreign throne for assistance in compassing the ruin of his country. But the hour is coming and now is, when the power of the leaders of the Rebellion to delude and inflame must cease. There is no bitterness on the part of the masses. The people of the South are not going to wage an eternal war for the wretched pretexts by which this rebellion is sought to be justified. The bonds that unite us as one People,–a substantial community of origin, language, belief, and law; common national and political interests; a common history; a common pride in a glorious ancestry; a common interest in this great heritage of blessings; the very geographical features of the country; the mighty rivers that cross the lines of climate, and thus facilitate the interchange of natural and industrial products, while the wonder-working arm of the engineer has levelled the mountain-walls which separate the East and West, compelling your own Alleghenies, my Maryland and Pennsylvania friends, to open wide their everlasting doors to the chariot-wheels of traffic and travel,–these bonds of union are of perennial force and energy, while the causes of alienation are imaginary, factitious, and transient. The heart of the People, North and south, is for the Union. Indications, too plain to be mistaken, announce the fact, both in the East and the West of the States in rebellion. In North Carolina and Arkansas the fatal charm at length is broken. At Raleigh and Little Rock the dips of honest and brave men are unsealed, and an independent press is unlimbering its artillery. When its rifled cannon shall begin to roar, the hosts of treasonable sophistry–the mad delusions of the day–will fly like the Rebel army through the passes of yonder mountain. The weary masses of the people are yearning to see the dear old flag again floating upon their capitols, and they sigh for the return of the peace, prosperity, and happiness which they enjoyed under a government whose power was felt only in its blessings. And now, friends, fellow-citizens of Gettysburg and Pennsylvania, and you from remoter States, let me again, as we part, invoke your benediction on these honored graves. You feel, though the occasion is mournful, that it is good to be here. You feel that it was greatly auspicious for the cause of the country, that the men of the East and the men of the West, the men of nineteen sister States, stood side by side, on the perilous ridges of the battle. You now feel it a new bond of union that they shall lay side by side, till a clarion, louder than that which marshalled them to the combat, shall awake their slumbers. God bless the Union;–it is dearer to us for the blood of brave men which has been shed in its defense. The spots on which they stood and fell; these pleasant heights; the fertile plain beneath them; the thriving village whose streets so lately rang with the strange din of war; the fields beyond the ridge, where the noble Reynolds held the advancing foe at bay, and, while he gave up his own life, assured by his forethought and self-sacrifice the triumph of the two succeeding days; the little streams which wind through the hills, on whose banks in after-times the wondering ploughman will turn up, with the rude weapons of savage warfare, the fearful missiles of modern artillery; Seminary Ridge, the Peach-Orchard, Cemetery, Culp, and Wolf Hill, Round Top, Little Round Top, humble names, henceforward dear and famous,–no lapse of time, no distance of space, shall cause you to be forgotten. "The whole earth," said Pericles, as he stood over the remains of his fellow-citizens, who had fallen in the first year of the Peloponnesian War,–"the whole earth is the sepulcher of illustrious men." All time, he might have added, is the millennium of their glory. Surely I would do no injustice to the other noble achievements of the war, which have reflected such honor on both arms of the service, and have entitled the armies and the navy of the United States, their officers and men, to the warmest thanks and the richest rewards which a grateful people can pay. But they, I am sure, will join us in saying, as we bid farewell to the dust of these martyr-heroes, that where so ever throughout the civilized world the accounts of this great warfare are read, and down to the latest period of recorded time, in the glorious annals of our common country there will be no brighter page than that which relates The battles of Gettysburg." Everett mewed out his speech. His speech had lasted for two whole hours. When he was done, he turned away as he headed out. This speech would be seldom spoken in its full form as Abraham padded forth as he was told to give some brief remarks, He would craft together the most quoted speech in history. In just 10 sentences, he stated Thunderclan's purpose and the need to continue the fight.

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all cats in Thunderclan, Black or white, Tom or she-cat, are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the cats, by the cats, for the cats, shall not perish from the earth." Abraham mewed his remarks. The crowd cheered as they knew what they were now fighting for. Abraham soon turned as the cemetery was now opened to the public to pay their respects to the fallen. Abraham work was still not done.

There were still a million things for Abraham to do but he was running out of time.

**[A/N]: Abraham's speech for you all and I wanted to get this out of the way since its very important to how we think as people. And we should all agree everyone is not better but at the same time not worse than the people you interact with. We're still us at the end of the day.**

**Hopefully we can get back to the action of the east and who you want to see as the next leader to take charge of the Campaign of the East. Leave your responses if you want to see this go into play. That is all. Goodbye.**


	24. We're running out of time

While they were now making progress, they still couldn't find a decisive victory in the east. The campaigns of Bristol and Mine Run didn't get them much progress and were ultimately repelled and that was bad news for Abraham because his presidency was now in its fourth year.

"Mister President, its 1864 and we got some news, there is an election coming at the end of this year. We need to start campaigning if we are supposed to stay in office." Ambrose mewed as he wanted to keep Abraham running the country. However, someone else knew this too as they wanted to figure out what to do.

* * *

Robert's POV

Robert and Jefferson were walking along as they were discussing on what their plans would be. Robert had felt sorrow for these past few months for a certain she-cat as he saw that she was distancing herself farther and farther away.

"You know I feel bad for Mapleshade, she doesn't want to talk to me or any of my staff. She's always locking herself away and she's throwing a fit every time I try to talk to her." Robert told Jefferson as he was outlying Mapleshade's predicament. It was clear, Gettysburg utterly shattered her morale and she was losing interest in the war. Jefferson thought about this as he was looking out for her as well.

"She might be going through a rough point in her life. She'll get over it." Jefferson mewed as he knew she could recover from this. Robert was uncertain.

"It's been months since Gettysburg and she hasn't recovered since. I'm worried that one of my finest fighters is going insane. Jefferson looked at him as he had more important things to focus on.

"Listen as much as we can try to figure out what is wrong with her, we have more important things to worry about. It's 1864 and we have an election coming. With little hope to threaten the north militarily, our last shot of victory maybe with the election, Abraham, emancipation and the war itself, aren't exactly popular. If we can just hold out and inflict more defeats, Abraham will be voted out and replaced with a southern sympathizer who is willing to negotiate." Now go get me more victories Lee." Jefferson spoke sharply to Robert as he knew he wanted every cat willing to fight armed and to charge forth. Robert wasn't so sure about this. But to Abraham he desperately needed a victory.

* * *

Abraham's POV

With General Meade announcing his retirement from the regular forces, Abraham needed a new general to command the army of the East. Winfield and Ambrose entered his office one day as they were now trying to figure out who was it going to be.

"Abraham, it's time that we picked a new general to command the campaign in the east and we need to act fast, with General Meade gone, we need a new commander to take charge." Winfield mewed as he laid out the files to see who he liked. Abraham looked through the files but sadly he saw no one that he liked.

"Ugh! Why can't I find anyone that I like? All of these generals are either too timid or old we need a general taken from the south and put in charge." Abraham shouted as he found no one. He was just ready to take one of the generals from the south and put them in charge. Winfield wasn't so sure but Ambrose got an idea.

"Hey Winfield, may I speak to you for a moment?" Ambrose mewed. Winfield nodded as he pulled him to another room alone to speak with him.

"Okay Ambrose, what is it that you want?" Winfield asked. Ambrose soon thought about it for a moment before coming up with his words.

"It might sound risky but we should give in to Abraham's demands and take one of the generals from the south and put them in charge of the army." Ambrose told Winfield his idea but Winfield wasn't so sure about this.

"Can you please elaborate a bit?" Winfield asked. Ambrose knew he had to put it in simpler terms but he could explain.

"Okay. We now might be asking for a new general but the readers are begging, but Mister Ida, if Abraham loves General Ulysses S. Grant so much than why doesn't he put him in charge of the campaign of the east? And we say, guess what loyal readers, you hit the nail on the head." Ambrose responded. Winfield wasn't so sure but if it was a general that could work, he would have to agree.

"It may sound risky but it's better than nothing." Winfield responded. They soon exited the room as they wanted to speak with Abraham directly. "Abraham we made our decision." Winfield began. Abraham raised his head curiously wondering on who they chose.

"Who did you decide to choose for me?" Abraham asked as he was wondering on who they decided to choose for him. Ambrose spoke.

"After much debate over it, we have the conclusion on making General Grant the new commander of the army of the east." Ambrose mewed his decision. Abraham was more than overjoyed since he hoped with these victories this general had been racking up, they would have a new general that would help win them the war.

"You've chosen the best general for that job." Abraham mewed as he wanted to meet Ulysses face to face for the first time.

Ulysses arrived a few days later as Abraham came out to greet him. Ulysses looked at Abraham as he was seeing the president for the first time since he was elected and Abraham got some words for.

"It's an honor to be meeting you for the first time." Abraham mewed. He sticks his paw out as Ulysses shook it in response.

"It's an honor meeting you too mister President." Ulysses responded as Abraham paused for a moment as he spoke.

"You're one bold General Grant, I'll Grant you that, and I ain't taking you for Granted, now I'm promoting you to general of all union armies and your task is taking Richmond in the east. Now go defeat General Lee for me. Grant me my wish!" Abraham mewed as he was using his name as a pun. Ulysses was beginning to find it not funny.

"Please stop." Ulysses mewed as he found it annoying. But he knew he had a promise to fulfill and he was going to follow Abraham's orders as he soon turned and left, he would promise the president a victory he was going to truly see. Ambrose and Winfield padded over to Abraham.

"Is he going to promise us that victory?" Winfield asked. Ambrose looked at him as Abraham turned his head and spoke.

"By all means, he will try everything." Abraham responded as he knew Ulysses managed to pull off victories before and now he was giving his biggest challenge and see what will happen. "I just hope he brings something new." Ulysses be the biggest turning point of the war.

* * *

Ulysses POV

Ulysses arrived in his tent as he took out a map as he would begin planning on how to do this campaign as they were around the area of Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg. He soon spoke to his generals.

"Okay I have a plan and it involves all of us and I want you to listen." Ulysses began. The other generals turned and looked at him as they were wondering on what he had in mind.

"What's the plan?" One of the generals asked as he was wondering on what the plan was. Ulysses spoke.

"Well the plan is that I want to press the Confederates on all fronts. I want General Banks in New Orleans moving east to capture Mobile, Alabama, my good friend General Sherman to capture Atlanta and Me, myself joining the army of the East as we march south towards Richmond. And I will throw all of our forces against the enemy." Ulysses laid out his plan. The other generals seem skeptical about his plans especially his plan for the east.

"But sir, that's a way to draining our forces as we won't have the numbers to replace them quickly." One of the generals mewed but Ulysses seemed ready to counter his statement.

"Listen I know about this since we have an advantage over the Confederates. The Confederates are the ones running out of fresh bodies to use on the battlefield and the north by comparison has plenty. If we inflict heavy losses on the Confederates, they won't have enough cats to replace the losses and I will do it even if it costs ten thousand lives. If they try to inflict heavy casualties on us, we keep moving forward and flank General Lee." Ulysses responded as he knew that he could replace the losses, the south however could not. The generals didn't seem too sure about this but if it would work, it will guarantee them victory.

"Okay, we'll follow along with your plan." The generals responded. Ulysses nodded as he knew he wanted to put the plan into action as soon as possible.

* * *

Patch's POV

Patch was marching out with the Atlanta Garrison as he got the orders to defend the city from the oncoming union army that was now pouring into Georgia. Patch and the volunteers were ready but they were poorly equipped and only had a few musket balls. Patch knew they had to defend the city but were let down horribly by their forces. However, Patch had a somewhat much more complex plan. Instead of defending the city, he wanted to betray the forces of the confederates and join the union army as they were going to go take the city. Patch soon arrived on the western edge where the attacks would begin as they was busy spending the time to fortify their positions. A union attack was expected to come tomorrow as it was part of Ulysses plan. Even with confederate armies in the west trying to threaten their advance, it was too little too late. He just wanted to keep the family together.

The next day the attack came as General Sherman ordered the attack. The cannonballs from the Garrison fired as they only had one cannon with them as the crews with the cannon were very inaccurate as the shots were falling short of their targets. Soon the union forces began to charge as the cannon continued to fire with the shots still falling very short. Soon the muskets were raised as Patch was soon given the order. The leader of the confederates looked out as he shouted.

"Fire!" Everyone but Patch fired as they were very inaccurate as the musket balls were falling short of the attackers. He soon turned to Patch wondering why he didn't fire his musket as he was wondering about it. "Come on Patch, fire the musket now!" He ordered. Patch held back as the muskets fired once more, the shots were still very inaccurate. The commander seeing this looked at him. "Give me the musket!" He shouted. He grabbed the musket as Patch wrestled him away from his paws. He soon pointed the musket to the officer as he fired it into his head. Another officer ran over as Patch bashed him with the butt of the musket. He soon ditched the musket as he ran as fast as his legs could carry him as he hid into the bushes as the 2nd officer recovered.

"You get back here you scamp!" The 2nd officer shouted. He soon turned as the Union army fired a volley cutting the garrison down. The ones in the second wave soon retreated as they were shattered. Patch peered his head from the bushes as he watched the union infantry continue their attack as the cavalry galloped along as they looked around to see who they could capture. Soon Patch felt something yank him from the bushes as one of union cavalry had found him.

"Hey I found one of those confederates. We don't know what he's been up to." The tom mewed. Sherman soon came galloping along as Patch was held up to the general. Sherman looked at him as he saw that he wasn't over the age of 18.

"Great are the Confederates conscripting young kits into the army as well, looks like this fella is a long way from home." William responded as he hoisted Patch up onto his saddle and wanted to bring him back to camp. William galloped off as he went to join the rest of the troops. He soon turned back as he wanted to find out who this tom cat was. "Name's Sherman, William Sherman, I'm wondering on who you are you little kit?" Patch was eager to meet this cat as he soon looked at him.

"Names Patch and it's an honor to meet you." Patch mewed as he continued riding the saddle of the horse. Sherman nodded as they soon arrived at the camp. Sherman and Patch got off their horses as they walked forth to the spot they were at.

"So you know where you live?" William asked as he was wondering where in the Confederacy Patch lived. Patch looked at him as his mind snapped as he soon responded.

"I live in Atlanta sir, all my life. I mainly came to you as I wanted to rescue what remains of my family. My father was a northern sympathizer but he was kicked out by the masses and I completely forgot where my mother was, I haven't seen her for years." Patch responded as he told Sherman where he was and who his family was. He felt a pang as Mapleshade had been absent from his life for years and he was itching to see her again.

"Atlanta? That's where we're heading, We'll be moving out tomorrow if you want to help me survey the land as we continue and we might treat the citizens kindly as they are most likely starving at this point and it's clear you look hungry yourself." William responded. He soon slid a revolver to Patch as he knew he would be useful to them. "Keep that as self-defense since you don't know when the confederates will strike. You seem interested in joining our ranks despite not being of age. So want to join the union army?" Patch began to get excited as he wanted to fight in this war but he wanted to fight for what was right and seeing that the north had a noble cause. He looked at Sherman.

"I'm more than happy to say yes." Patch responded. The general nodded as he was determined to see what the young kit was capable of. They would move out in the morning.

**[A/N]: Sorry for the long wait as I was in a bit of a writer's block however that wasn't the worse. First day of the month I was in pain as I felt like I had torn out a muscle and wasn't able to write and spent the next few days recovering.**

**Discord heard their calls and I got what they wanted. Ulysses is now in charge of the campaign of the east. I held a vote and seeing how my most loyal followers so far for the story overwhelmingly voted for Ulysses, I decided to put him in charge. Now let's hope this war will finally turn. That is all for now.**


	25. Ulysses' Overland Campaign

As Sherman was moving south, he had Atlanta in his sights but he was now settling outside of the city and he dug in and settled for a siege. However, the main show was happening in the east of Virginia when Ulysses was going to face off against Robert as the top generals were going to duke it out. Abraham was praying that Ulysses would bring something new to the eastern theater and bring something new he would do.

* * *

Ulysses' POV

Ulysses was waiting in his camp as he was going to get ready to move his forces south. Harriet had been helping this army out as a spy and information gatherer had approached Ulysses as she had some news for her.

"The confederates are preparing for something and I want you to deploy your troops in the wilderness." Harriet called out. Ulysses looked out for the black she-cat as he nodded. He soon knew he had to gather his army and begin the march south. Ulysses soon exited his tent as Ambrose was attending with him.

"We should be ready, forces are refreshed and we should be ready to throw them at the enemy." Ambrose mewed as Ulysses nodded. Ulysses soon went into the center of the camp as everyone was beginning to pack.

"All forces of the Union Army, we are preparing to move south and we are not taking one step back to Washington D.C. We had enough of running back there and behaving cowardly. Now we shall show these Confederates that they have wanted a fight and fights they will get, now prepare to move out." Ulysses called soon the union army began to move south. Ulysses was riding along with Ambrose as he was wondering about this. "How did Abraham let you get back in the union army as a general?" Ulysses was puzzled on how Abraham let him back into the army. Ambrose turned his head as he soon spoke to Ulysses.

"You see Abraham decided to put me on secondary training to act as a 2nd line of defense in case your attacks or defenses were to fail. However I won't be engaging in front line combat ever since the disaster at Fredericksburg I do not want to make the same mistake twice yet I have the confidence that you can organize the offensive south." Ambrose responded as he was being placed in limited combat. All the brutal gritty work, Abraham assigned Ulysses to they were now beginning to cross the river as the attack and bloodshed would begin.

* * *

Robert's POV

Robert was frantic, the spies had told him that the union forces were moving south and he was scrambling his forces together. Compared to the previous years, he wasn't able to commit a large number of forces to the fight but that wasn't his main focus. His main focus was trying to get Mapleshade ready to fight and convince her that she was needed. Robert soon opened the door to her room as he soon entered. He found Mapleshade was in a corner turned away and staring into space. Robert padded forth as he was wondering if she managed to pull herself together. He was soon hovering over her as he tapped her with his tail. Mapleshade turned as she didn't seem depressed as before but she was still at a low. Mapleshade simply didn't have the strength to lash out.

"Hey Mapleshade, listen. I know for the past few months, you didn't seem yourself but we definitely need you on the front lines. Can we try to put this behind us and we can begin the defense, what do you say?" Robert mewed. Mapleshade only turned away not responding, it was clear she wasn't going to be eager to get out and fight. Robert shrugged as he soon turned the stool around as Mapleshade continued to pout. Robert wanted to try to reason with her but Mapleshade being as stubborn as ever knew she would be a tough nut to crack. "Come on Maple leaf talk to me, is there something that's bothering you, you can tell Robert about it. I don't want to yell and shout but please in all of Starclan, tell me what's wrong." Mapleshade looked at Robert as she was beginning to unravel. Mapleshade looked at Robert finally for the first time in what it seemed to be weeks, Mapleshade finally began to speak.

"What happened at Gettysburg, I don't know how to describe it; the wails of cats dying, getting shot and blown up is something I sadly don't want to go back to. I can't even close my eyes to get the sleep I need to keep my focus. Now I can barely leave the safety of the room without hearing the ring of a cannon firing and I now hold myself in a corner in a little ball in the hopes in all of Starclan I don't get shot or blown up. I don't know if I can keep fighting." Mapleshade told Robert about what had happened, feeling defeated, she was just ready to give up. Robert knew there was no one allowed to give up as long as he was around.

"It won't be over until it's over, we don't give in now, if we can just keep holding, they won't be able to break through and we'll be able to have a chance at surviving this. Now let's get ready." Ulysses soon turned away as Mapleshade got up and followed him. Robert was now her only friend and she was hoping his words were true.

**May 6****th****, 1864, Wilderness, Virginia, Spotsylvania county**

Mapleshade after much deciding and what to do; decided to fully commit herself to the combat as she grabbed her musket as she was ready for combat. She was marching along with the reinforcements she was assigned to as they arrived on the battlefield. They were organized into a secondary line of defense seeing how the front line had completely shattered. The survivors were scrambling to make it back to their lines as the threat of union cats continued to charge down at them. Mapleshade knew she had to take charge of the situation.

"Southerners! We will try to hold the line! If we fail, may Starclan herself, welcome us with open arms." Mapleshade mewed as she wanted to hold on to the flanks so the main force of Robert's army to the northwest wouldn't be cut off. The union cats came charging forward as Mapleshade got her Musket ready. She looked down as she fired along with many others. The shots tore into the cats as they dropped. Mapleshade began reloading as she looked to gauge how far the enemy was. She soon finished the reload process as she looked down her rifle again and bang!. They fired away again. The shots tore down more charging unions but they weren't backing down like they were a couple years back. Soon seeing how there was no other option, they decided to draw out their bayonets seeing they didn't have the time to reload. The cats came in as Mapleshade blocked them off with the rifles.

Both sides were screaming at each other in their faces as Mapleshade was pushing back with the others to hold them off. They were slowly being pushed back as more union cats came to reinforce their lines. Mapleshade gritted her teeth as she was beginning to stop them in their tracks when she heard a sound; it was Robert charging in with his regiment as they saw that she was being pushed. Soon the cavalry came in as the cats on the nearby ridge began setting up the cannons for the attack. Soon the cannons fired as the cannonballs smashed deep into the union's lines. Robert looked on as he circled around wondering if she would make a move soon Mapleshade seeing this as a window of opportunity decided to push back as she thrusted her rifle bayonet into the union cat as the others did the same thing. She took it out, and then swung the rifle around bashing the cat behind him in the head knocking him over. Robert and the cavalry charged as they sliced up many union cats as they knocked strips into their forces. Seeing how this was going to turn out, they decided to fall back as they didn't want to take anymore losses. Mapleshade was happy that she had held the line with their forces but in all reality, this battle would turn out to be inconclusive.

* * *

Ulysses POV

Ulysses was reading the casualty report the next day after the prolonged three day battle. The confederates had inflicted heavy casualties as Ulysses began to weep.

"Those poor souls, they had all died or got injured for nothing. Your sacrifices will not go unavenged; we will push on for you." Ulysses gave the order, he knew the only way to win was to keep moving forward.

Ulysses pulled his forces to the east as he began to move as the next morning, they continued their progress towards Richmond. Mapleshade and Robert feared that they would be cut off met Ulysses in the bloody battle of Spotsylvania court house from the 8th to the 21st. The battle turned out to be tactically inconclusive but for Ulysses he needed to keep moving seeing it was a strategic victory. They continued moving south to try to outflank each other. The battle of North Anna finally came as the union army decided to cross the river. Mapleshade thought she could have the confidence to holding the river like what happened in Fredericksburg. However, Robert fell ill leaving Mapleshade to command the army all by herself, she would lead an unsuccessful defense of the river. Seeing where this was going they decided to retreat once more. It was only a matter of time as they continued to get pushed back. Through those 6 weeks, on both sides, 88,000 cats were either killed, wounded, captured or missing.

In the newspapers, Ulysses was criticized for being a butcher for killing all of those cats. Grant knew that some actions he did was inconclusive but if he inflicted all of those losses, he knew he could simply replace them, Robert however couldn't and he was being pushed all the way back to the capitol.

* * *

Robert's POV

Robert looked over the hills as he knew right below him was Richmond. He only knew before he would be pushed all the way back to the capitol and then Ulysses would trap his forces. Mapleshade padded up to him as she was on the same hill as he was.

"Is there something wrong Robert?" Mapleshade asked as she knew Robert was looking worried. Robert turned his head as he looked at Mapleshade.

"Yes there is, right below us is the capitol of the Confederacy, we're being forced all the way back there and with the losses that we've been taking, it's only a matter of time before the entire confederacy falls. We need to prepare for a defense of the city." Robert responded, surely enough he was right. The forces would need to protect the city so it doesn't fall into their enemies paws.

"How do we do that, it's not like we can just simply dig in and wait it out?" Mapleshade mewed as she knew that idea would be crazy but Robert just had an idea light up in his mind as he was thinking of something as Maplshade said those words.

"Great idea, we'll dig ourselves into the ground and simply hold out until the enemy gives up. I didn't know you had creative thinking in a situation like this Maple leaf." Robert responded. He soon rubbed his paw through Mapleshade's fur as he knew that she had the perfect idea. However watching them speak was Harriet as she was quietly listening in on their conversations. She slipped back into the brush to find Ulysses.

* * *

Ulysses POV

Harriet came into the camp they had set up as Ulysses was greeting the reinforcements to his army. Harriet was panting as she arrived in camp exhausted as she looked on. She had some important news. Ambrose was with him as he was speaking to George about the whole campaign.

"I would wish to speak to Ulysses directly." Harriet proposed as she wished to speak to the commander. Ulysses turned his head to Harriet as he knew she wanted his attention.

"I'm right here and what were you able to gather?" Ulysses asked Harriet if she was able to gather any information on what the confederates were up to. Harriet nodded as she spoke.

"Yes, they plan on digging in and waiting for us to surrender. We don't know about this but we should also do the same thing as the confederates as we might have a better chance of defending our positions from counter attacks." Harriet responded as she knew that they might as well try out this new tactics to see how this war would go. Ulysses nodded as he wanted to see what to do about this.

Both sides dug in as a result as these so called trenches would be used for both sides and the conditions were deplorable. Ulysses attacked Richmond directly, suffering horrific casualties in a miscalculated assault at Cold Harbor with the first three days fighting and the other nine waiting it out.

"I regret taking part in this assault as we lost many more good cats in this attack and many more dying from disease." Ulysses mewed. Harriet followed him as she was gathering intelligence about the trenches.

"Yeah I beg your pardon sir but the reason why the enemy managed to pull off a victory since they managed to get all their supplies from Petersburg." Harriet responded as she knew that was why they managed to suffer. Ulysses paused hearing the word Petersburg. He soon turned to Harriet as he began to speak.

"Where is Petersburg?" Ulysses asked as he was wondering about the location of the so called city. Harriet thought for a moment before she spoke.

"About 22 miles." Harriet gave a rough estimate between the two cities. Ulysses nodded as he knew that was where they were going to go next.

"Ahh I see. Okay listen up, looks like we're taking a detour to Petersburg as we might suspect the enemy might be holding a large store of supplies. We're moving out in five." Ulysses soon knew that if they captured Petersburg, they would be able to cut the city from its supply lines making it easier to capture. Ulysses began to move the forces out as George and Ambrose were left with a garrison to wait the city out.

* * *

Mapleshade's POV

Mapleshade peeked her head out as she looked out, Ulysses and a large chunk of their forces were moving out. She knew she sensed an opportunity. She turned her head to Robert who was watching this.

"Hey Robert, the entirety of the union army is moving south. Meaning we can push them back and drive them from their trenches." Mapleshade began. Robert didn't respond as he knew where they were going. Mapleshade turned her head to him as she was wondering what was happening. "Robert, why aren't you speaking." Robert turned his head a moment later as he spoke.

"I think I know where they're going, They're heading straight for Petersburg and we might as well try to protect our supply line." Robert responded as he knew Petersburg was important as they had a lot of supplies stored there. He turned as he motioned for a large force of his army to follow him as well as garrisoning a small force to protect the city. Robert was guessing Ulysses was trying to be a tricky trickster this time and head for his supplies. They soon began moving south as they wanted to meet both forces for the battle. However this wasn't going to be a single battle as Robert and Mapleshade arrived first and dug in. Ulysses did the same thing as he arrived and he was forced to settle in for a siege.

**[A/N]: Updates will be coming out at a slower pace for now since I seemed worked up. Two sieges are happening at the same time and that sadly won't be enough for the president. Do the confederates have anything in store, find out next chapter. That is all.**


	26. The Battle of Fort Stevens

Two identical sieges weren't enough for Abraham's reelection. The cats of the north had seen the losses that Ulysses had been taking and they weren't happy. Worse was yet to come.

* * *

Mapleshade's POV

Mapleshade was busy with herself in the trench as she knew that her work was far from done as she had to get herself ready in case of a union attack. Soon the pitter-patter of hooves was heard as the sounds of a small group of cats were coming up to the trenches. The calico tom cat got off of his horse as he was ready to explain to the leader about what was going on.

"Me and my forces are going to attempt to move north and try to take the capitol in the hope that General Grant withdraws some of his forces from Petersburg to try to defend the city. I hope it works." The calico tom responded as he had plans. Robert looked at him as he was worried about such a risky move.

"General Early I hope I know what you are doing, I sense that a move like this would be risking all your chips and pushing them to the center right from the start and not getting the cards yet. I will send some volunteers with you to carry out this mission as I am praying to Starclan that I hope you know what you're doing." Robert responded as he turned to his holdout that were still waiting around that were going be used up in combat. He knew he had a few that were itching for a fight as he decided to speak.

"Any cat who is willing to volunteer to take the enemy capitol come out of the trench and follow behind I hope we can recruit more cats along the way seeing how this is going to be important to us. We want to try to lure some of the forces away from here, not take the capitol and the launch lightning raids if needed." Jubal made his announcement. The cats seemed unsure about what to do but Mapleshade seeing how no one was willing to go decided to get up as headed to Jubal.

"I volunteer to help you." Mapleshade mewed as she was concerned about what was going on. Jubal looked concern as if Mapleshade was the only one going. Jubal looked out to the entrenched cats looking for more volunteers to help him. Soon one by one, the cats began to head out of the trenches as they soon massed to being a couple hundred volunteers but Jubal looked at his forces seeing that he knew that it wasn't enough but he knew he had to make do with the forces.

"I'll see what I can do with this." Jubal responded as Robert turned his head to him as he was ready to set off northward. Mapleshade went to Robert as she herself was worried.

"Robert, you sure you will remain here when I return?" Mapleshade asked him. Robert looked at her as he was sure and had some level of certainty. He soon turned to Mapleshade as he began speaking.

"Yes I will Maple leaf, I will be here. I have to watch the troops to see if we can be able to hold Petersburg so that Richmond can continue to receive supplies. I will see you when the war is over." Robert responded as Mapleshade gulped. She knew this was the last time she see Robert for the rest of her life as she soon shook his paw.

"I promise I'll be back, hold out." Mapleshade mewed. She soon turned as she began walking away with Jubal and his forces as they were going to try to divert some of the troops away from Richmond.

Jubal and Mapleshade began moving northwest as they had intended to try to threaten the capitol the first small battle was the battle of Lynchburg on the 17th-18th which they managed to snag a victory and they were driving straight through Virginia as they were getting close to D.C. They knew they could easily stop the war.

* * *

Abraham's POV

Abraham was sitting in his office as Frederick entered the office; he seemed frightened as he raced for Abraham as he had some news for him.

"Mister President, the confederates, they're heading to D.C. around 10,000 of them." Frederick mewed as he expressed his concern. Abraham nodded as he wanted to use the emergency garrison he had around as it numbered around 5,000. Abraham looked at Frederick as he knew that he had a request.

"Frederick, I request the Garrison to meet the confederates where they might be heading to We have a series of ridges we can fire down upon so they don't take the city. Also, I wish to observe this force to see how well they do." Abraham noted his request with the garrison. Frederick nodded as he knew about this but if the president was killed in battle, his replacement would continue for the rest of the term but it was unknown for what he would so. Abraham got up as he went to meet the garrison and move out with them. The two forces would meet just north of the city as the forces were going to clash out.

* * *

Mapleshade's POV

**Fort Stevens, July 11****th****, 1864, Northern Washington D.C.**

Mapleshade, Jubal and the others were marching through the sweltering heat as they had attacked on one of the worst hot spells in history, the temperature was over 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and they were exhausted and unable to do anything about it. Mapleshade collapsed as she was on the verge of melting in the heat. To make matters worse, there hadn't been any rain for the past 47 days in this area and thus the grass was long and dry, a terrible time to start a wild fire. Mapleshade opened the cork to her canteen as she found nothing as she tapped it as she realized her water canteen was empty. She turned to Jubal as she was out of water.

"I got no water left in my canteen." Mapleshade mewed as she panted from thirst. Jubal turned as his face looked like it was melting from his bones as he was covered in sweat.

"We all got no water left, it might be too hot to do anything right now and a good chunk of our force isn't here yet so we must prepared, it's best we decide to relax until the temperature cools down a bit and get our forces together for a sufficient enough attack." Jubal responded. He soon got off his horse as Mapleshade was sitting under a dead and wilted oak tree. Jubal sat down next to her in the shade. Mapleshade closed her eyes in the heat and fell asleep wondering when the forces would arrive.

They did arrive an hour later as the heat was beginning to soften. Mapleshade and Jubal woke up from their naps as they had a huge bulk of their force. Jubal decided to light a cigar as he began to smoke it.

"Sir, the temperature is dropping; we may have a chance to attack." One of the commanders from the group asked Jubal as the heat was subsiding meaning there was still a chance to attack. Jubal looked at his forces as the heat did a number on them.

"Okay prepare to move out, when there is no heat, hopefully there will be nothing to stop us, be prepared to move." Jubal responded as they all picked up their muskets as they got ready to move. "Yeah looks like there will be nothing standing between us and those filthy Yankees. We might be fighting for a lost cause but it's a cause we must serve." They began marching out with a small force of a thousand cats with the rest standing by as reserves. Jubal and Mapleshade marched along as they had no cavalry to support them. Jubal sensing the cigar was nearly burn out, took it out of his mouth and flicked it to the side as it was hidden under some thick brush. Jubal thinking that the brush would be moist enough for the cigar remains to burn out didn't seem to mind as he got the troops moving but in the underbrush, it served as tinder as a cracking sound was heard as the brush slowly caught fire. This would turn bad.

Mapleshade and the others soon arrived as a force of a couple hundred union troops were waiting on the front lines as they were lined up. On the ridges were several artillery batteries as Jubal looked out.

"Fire and charge!" Jubal gave the order out. Mapleshade lead the charge on their forces as they began charging, wildly firing their muskets in many directions, seeing how they were excited, they were very disorganized as their musket balls flew in many different directions. Only Mapleshade didn't fire as she immediately charged out after their forces. The union cats lowered their muskets and fired away as their shots tore through a couple confederate troops as the artillery barrages began raining down on the confederates. Mapleshade looked up as dirt and dry grass rained down on her as she looked up one of the ridges and standing on top of the ridge was the president of Thunderclan himself, Abraham. Mapleshade sensed this as she had an opportunity to cripple the north's morale and take their capitol. Mapleshade who hadn't fired yet raised her rifle up to the president's head as she looked down the rifle.

"This is for the south." Mapleshade mewed. She fired the rifle but the shot forced her musket upwards as the shot flew out, it was a complete miss as instead of landing in Abraham's skull, it struck his top hat her was wearing as Abraham looked down seeing his top hat that was shot off of him. He picked it up, brushed it and puts it back on. Mapleshade hissed with anger as she didn't get him. "Dang it!" Soon the troops of the engagement were beginning to fall back as they smelt the scent of smoke.

"Fall back fall back! The whole field is on fire!" The troops on both sides shouted. It turned out Jubal's cigar had ignited a fire in the brush and now sensing that the entire field may be on fire, they knew they had to withdraw. Mapleshade sensing the opportunity fell back as she now didn't have a chance to fire at Abraham again, both sides began to withdraw.

Jubal, Mapleshade and their forces retreated from the fields as they sensed now wasn't the time to stay around with the fire raging so they fell back to Virginia giving the union a victory.

"Major, we didn't take Washington but we scared Abe Lincoln like hell." Jubal panted as it was the fire that ended up scaring both sides away and because of the fire, the casualties were minimized. Mapleshade was disappointed though as she didn't get the chance to take Abraham's life away but the fire managed to put a damper on her experience. She knew their only choice was to flee.

* * *

Frederick's POV

Frederick was in D.C. itself with the secondary forces as Abraham returned with the main army. Frederick looked at the president as he was wondering what was going on.

"You seem to be back early, did you win?" Frederick asked as he saw the president was back. Abraham looked at him as he soon spoke.

"The battle was short and pretty uneventful as fire tore everyone apart. Someone shot my top hat off of my head but we were surely frightened by this. Hopefully we can push these confederates back." Abraham mewed as he gave the casualty report. Despite the hot day they managed to take minimal losses and the fire had to put a damper on it.

"Let's hope they don't stick their noses through here again." Frederick mewed as he knew that the capitol needed to be better guarded. The sun was going to set but back in Petersburg, that sunset would spark something massive.

* * *

Unknown POV

Two cats were wandering in the darkness as they were discussing on how to break the stalemate. One of them was handling the ropes as he had a plan.

"So Ambrose, I propose that we dig a tunnel right underneath the trenches of the Confederates and we try to blast a big enough hole underneath them leaving a large gap in their lines, once that is done, we will move our troops through the hole and capture all the forces around us and that is how we take Petersburg." The voice came. That cat was a miner whose plan was to lay several kilograms worth of dynamite under the enemy's trenches and light them all up with a long fuse like rope. Ambrose looked out as he had come to Petersburg to observe the trench warfare that was going on. The plan itself seemed risky but if it was something to break the stalemate, it wouldn't be worth it unless you tried it.

"Hmm. I don't know if this plan would work but I say we should give it a go." Ambrose mewed as he was willing to try it as he knew that he would use any opportunity to break the stalemate. "So we'll begin digging underneath the trenches and distance between ours and theirs, once done we should have the dynamite ready to blast a big enough hole in the middle more towards their left flank and when that is done, we send in the troops. It will take several days to construct the tunnel and get everything finalized but if you're up for it, I say we should go all in." Ambrose knew this plan was a big gamble but if what he said was correct, they could have a victory within a matter of days. So the plan was going to be finalized.

The trench was going to be blown up.

**[A/N]: Yesterday marks the 155****th**** anniversary of when the Civil War was brought to a close when the Confederates surrendered at Appomattox Court House and I promise I will get to that but we are getting very close. I will moreover tell you what is going to happen since Mapleshade will be absent for a good chunk of the story since she and Robert had split. Looks like Mapleshade is going to be alone for a while so you'll have to bear with the rest of the readers that she might not appear for the next few chapters.**


	27. The Battle of the Crater

For the cats still holding out at Petersburg, their world was going to be rocked upside down. The dynamite was being placed in and they were going to get ready to light the fuse. Their world was about to explode.

* * *

Unknown POV

**July 30****th****, 1864, Petersburg, Virginia**

It was still pretty dark out as the cats in the confederate trenches were wondering about when the sun will come up. To the east they saw some light rising from the east but the stars still lingered in the night sky. The cats were busy trying to keep themselves occupied as they were wondering about the sun.

"Yeah you should have seen the look on Mapleshade's face. We feel defeated now that she isn't around." One of the cats asked as he sat down. A large dark ginger tom was sharpening some bowie knives as he soon spoke.

"We've been in this for too long, this civil war is hell." He responded as he continued sharpening his knives. Another cat looked at him wondering about this.

"Don't you believe in the Dark forest?" He asked the large tom as he continued sharpening his knives.

"Not that I know of, tell me about it." The tom responded, he was looking around as he sensed that this sunrise could be perfect.

Unknown to him, the union cats had already laid out the dynamite right underneath their trenches as the tunnel took around two weeks to construct. They had just finished laying out the rope as they were now ready. Ambrose soon lit a match as he picked up the dry end of the rope. He handed the match to the miner cat as he lit the rope as the fire began nibbling away at the rope but it gradually sped up. Ambrose and the miner cat hopped out as they knew it would only be a matter of time before their trenches would blow sky high.

"Okay cover that up." Ambrose mewed as one of the cats began covering the entrance with sand bags. Outside, laying prone on their bellies were many union cats as they were waiting for the explosion to go off and they can charge, many of these cats were black but they were determined and eager for a fight. The fire continued to eat away at the rope. Soon a cottontail beige rabbit appeared in the trenches as the cats looking inside were excited to see a critter like this.

"Hey where did you come from?" A gray tom asked as he was excited. A rabbit like this meant breakfast. "Hey that guy is breakfast!" He shouted as he got up to chase the rabbit. The rabbit feeling terrified began to bounce along as it wanted to get out of there, provoking a chase.

"He's mine!" Another tom shouted as the cats continued to chase after the rabbit but what they didn't know was that their trench was a trap and the rabbit was the distraction to all of this. The cats grunted and scrambled as they began to chase after the rabbit seeing how they wanted to be able to have something to eat when the sun rose. The rabbit bounded along as the cats desperately tried grabbing the rabbit with their paws as they slammed them on the wooden boards. Some of them were chasing after the morsel so they could easily kill it, cook it and eat it. Something else was eating too and it was the rope that was burning away by the fire as it was getting close to the dynamite. It soon splits up individually to set the kegs of powder and explosives ablaze. The cats continued chasing the rabbit.

"He's mine!" One cat shouted as they continued to chase the rabbit in the darkness. The Ginger tom puts his knives away as another tom came racing after the rabbit.

"I want that rabbit!" He shouted but soon for the cats in the trench, their world was going to change forever. The ground exploded as dirt and wooden planks shot straight upward at the cats. The kegs and dynamite had indeed exploded as the cats inside the trench were in complete shock. The main tom was knocked back as dirt rained down, burying him alive. The others were sent flying as their explosion killed a few and injured many others in the process. It was clear that this would be the biggest explosion that would ever go off for the time. The cats on the other side were watching as the dust began to settle down as it was still dark out and they had just caused an explosion. Now was the chance to move forward.

The enemy trench was in ruin, fire was burning away at some of the books. Dirt, wood and bodies lay scattered all over the place and moving from the dirt pile was the tom as he emerged from the pile as he was unharmed, but he soon thought he might be the only lucky one. He began to look around for the rest of the group wondering where they were. Another survivor of the bunch, a skinny looking cream colored tom has just realized the sky had turned to a hellish orange as a big cloud of smoke was around him. He turned his head seeing a horse neighing, rearing on its hind legs before trotting off. Soon he looked around wondering where his fellow troops were as this world was a hellish void but his mind soon changed when he heard a noise in the distance. It was the union army and they were charging forth. The cats on the wrong side began to scramble back over the trench as they were heading around the crater. Soon the union cats in the confusing darkness didn't see where they were going as they ran down the hill into the crater they had created. Soon they reached the bottom as they continued to charge. They soon slammed onto the hill of the crater as it was very steep and they weren't able to get it over that easily. Some dared to climb over but it was clear that they weren't going to get out so easily but seeing how they were nothing more than fish in a barrel, the confederates decided now was the perfect opportunity to fight back against an enemy that was struggling.

"Fall back!" The union leader shouted but in the confusion of the charge, this created a massive traffic jam as the troops were simply trapped. The confederates decided to fire their muskets down at the enemy as the cluster of enemies would make easy picking.

"They're trapped in their own damn crater!" One of the southerner cats shouted before firing his musket off. He soon tossed it to the side as he grabbed another musket as he fired it down into the crowd.

"Damn! Busted!" Another cat shouted as he happily fired his musket. The Gray tom looked at him wondering what in the Dark forest was going on.

"The fools have dug their own grave!" Another cat shouted excitedly. One of the cats turned their heads as he spoke.

"It's a turkey shoot!" One of the cats shouted the dark ginger tom took a musket with a bayonet and chucked it down like a spear. The gray tom looked out wondering what he was saying.

"What?" He asked as he wanted to have the words repeated to him. The cat turned to him as he responded.

"It's a turkey shoot! They ran themselves into a hole!" He repeated as he fired the musket again. The Dark Ginger tom continued to chuck muskets down into the hole like they were spears. The bayonet landed into the chest of a fellow union tom as he cried out in agony. Some of the cats came along as they wanted to send the Yankees straight to the Dark Forest. Everyone crowded around the edge of the crater as they continued firing their shots off at the trapped union forces. They even rolled some of their cannons up as they began firing their cannonballs down at them. The cries of union cats were heard as some were beginning to climb up and out of the crater that they made. The Gray tom looked out as he grabbed his rifle seeing a union cat emerge from the crater as he swung around, picking up the cat with his paws as he threw him over and jabbed him with the bayonet. The cream colored tom saw a union cat emerge from the crater as he swung around with the rifle bashing him over the head with it but the union cat wrapped his paws around the cream tom and dragged him down. The gray tom looked out seeing the younger tom get dragged under like a swimming animal sinking into the abyss.

"Oakley!" The gray tom shouted as he looked around in the chaos. He couldn't see him. He looked down more as he began to slide his way into the crater as he took out his knife. He finally reached the bottom as he stabbed a fellow union troop attacking him. He continued to push his way through the tangled mess of union cats as he was looking for his friend. "Oakley!" He shouted again as he soon spotted Oakley. He was trying his hardest to wrestle off a fellow union cat from him as he struggled more and more. The gray tom looked on as he saw the rifle get turned against his fellow trooper as it gets thrusted into Oakley's gut. Oakley wailed in pain as he collapsed. The Gray tom pushed forward as he wanted to retrieve his friend as he was being drowned and crushed into the mud. "OAKLEY!" He shouted as he pushed his way through the crowd as he grabbed his friend. The dark ginger tom took own his bowie knives as he jumped into the fray as he attacked the first black cat he could find. The Gray tom continued to drag his friend to a hillside of the crater as muskets continued raining down on their enemies. He soon leaned onto the side of the crater as he realized that the union cats were still charging at him as Oakley was holding his wound. He soon realized there was a revolver on the side of the hill. He grabbed it as he began to fire it into the crowd. He screamed as he fired all the shots that were in it as he struck down a couple more union troops. Oakley was struggling holding his bleeding stomach with his paw as the Gray tom continued to drag him to safety. The chaos wasn't going to last for much longer as Oakley collapsed when he got to the top.

* * *

Ulysses POV

Ulysses rode over later that day to see many dead bodies in the crater with many more wounded. Full of guilt and weeping once more, Ulysses grabbed a cigar as he looked down at the piles as he lit up the cigar. His face was full of sorrow.

"This has to be the worst day of my life." Ulysses began. He turned away as he began to walk away. Ambrose looked out as he sensed this entire plan of his was his fault. He turned as he began to follow Ulysses.

"Yeah I know I felt like this entire operation was my wrong doing and seeing this, I don't know what to say about it. I would like to resign and return to D.C." Ambrose spoke as he knew this was all his wrong doing as he wasn't expecting to get trapped in his own crater. Ulysses looked at Ambrose as he was wondering about this.

"You're dismissed. You did what you could and now it will have to take a bit longer to break the trenches." Ulysses responded as he continued to take puffs with his cigar. Ambrose turned as he began to walk away. Ulysses needed to begin to decide on what he could do next.

* * *

Unknown POV

The Gray tom looked into the makeshift hospital where Oakley had been taken into. He saw Oakley as the cream colored tom was looking very sickly and completely limp. One of the she-cats tending to the poor cats wounds turned to him as she spoke.

"He's not going to make it. It's best you come to say your goodbye." She mewed. The Gray tom nodded as he walked over to the bed where Oakley rested. His face was green as the wound was brown and oozing with an infection. It was clear this was a wound he wouldn't recover from.

"Oakley I just wanted to say…" The Gray tom began but he couldn't finish his sentences as Oakley interrupted him. He soon smiled as he began to speak.

"We've done everything we could but I appreciated that you came back to save me but in the end of the day, I was a good kit wasn't I but seeing this, I don't know what I could say after this. But to Starclan I prayed: Oh Starclan tell this to father, I was a good kit. I hope we get to see each other again as I did all I can for you. May the fields grow golden with wheat and white with cotton. My heart will go out to give new life to those." Oakley responded as he mewed out his last words. The gray tom began to tear up as he knew that he was losing his friend. He began to cry as Oakley's eyes closed as he went limp smiling knowing he was grateful for the life he had. Now with his life gone, it was going to be harder to find those that would replace him.

Despite this being a confederate victory, this would be their last victory of the war. It was all downhill from there. Their losses were severe and they gained nothing in return.

**[A/N]: We're still sadly getting no traffic for this story let alone the stories in general as I feel saddened because of it. I thought we were going to make gains but even I myself am losing interest in the story seeing how no one is reading. Why is that seeing how I worked so hard on getting us many more chapters in? We still have a long way to go before we finish and I think we still have another month left to make before the deadline so let's shoot for that deadline. I'll see you next chapter.**


	28. Back in Atlanta

With the war in a stalemate, it was clear Abraham was wondering who would be his opponent in the election. Abraham looked out wondering who his democratic opponent would be in the election. Abraham looked out as he saw that his worst fears were true as the very cat he swore to fire for his lack of confidence to defeat the Confederacy was here. The white tom came striding out happily as he spoke.

"Guess what baby? I'm back!" George mewed. That's right. George McClellan was running for president against Abraham. "If you elect me, I, the great general George McClellan will fearlessly and valiantly win the war, unlike this douchebag!" George mewed before pointing to Abraham who was clearly dragging the war out longer than it needs to be. Many of the democrats included McClellan's running mate, wanted to end the war. So the cats were wondering if McClellan was fearlessly and valiantly signing peace with the confederates. Abraham soon withdrew as he knew that McClellan might have a chance at winning.

* * *

Abraham's POV

Abraham knew the situation was grim. How did the former timid and cautious General McClellan get the balls to run for president? Abraham and the others were looking on as they knew the situation looked grim for them.

"Come on Abraham why you feel so down? Is there a reason why you don't seem yourself?" Frederick asked as he was still in contact with the president. He soon sat himself down as Abraham continued to fiddle away with his paws. He soon turned his head to Frederick as he began to speak. His voice was full of concern.

"It appears that McClellan has a chance at winning and without some kind of victory first, it seems that this administration will not be reelected and the confederacy would have a chance at surviving. I need that victory first especially now in these times. I have big plans to help the country along." Abraham knew a victory was right there in their paws but seeing how his former timid general, suddenly get the urge to run. Abraham was praying to Starclan that this wasn't true.

* * *

Johnston Joseph's POV

It was clear the siege of Atlanta had lasted for over a month a number of battles were fought to keep the city at bay but they were ultimately repelled back to the city. The black tom walked about as he knew that they were still being supplied but the supplies were beginning to dwindle.

"Sir it's clear that we cannot hold Atlanta forever, we just simply cannot grow enough wheat to make bread for the city. We might need to abandon the city sometime soon." One of them mewed as the general was looking around to all the holdouts. He looked onward as he knew how the situation was laying itself out.

"Those pesky Northerners have pushed me back to the city, many cats on my side have deserted some even joined the enemy. We might need to continue holding out wherever possible so we don't lose the city." Joseph mewed. The general knew of the situation and he didn't want to risk losing the city. But the enemy was preparing an assault and was getting ready to bust through their lines. "Tell General Hood to take charge while I go gather reinforcements." With that he left as he wanted to gather more cats to help him defend the city. At this point they were conscripting toms as young as 8 into the forces to have a seemingly infinite supply but even with that, it can't help with the shortages. Sherman was getting ready for the attack.

* * *

Sherman, William's POV

**August 31****st****, 1864, Sherman's camp, ½ mile from Atlanta**

Patch was riding along with a horse as he and several others were scouting along the lines. He dismounted his horse as he went to Sherman's tent upon which he was finalizing everything for the attack. He soon turned his head seeing Patch had just arrived back.

"Back I see, so what are their positions I might be asking?" William asked as he was wondering how well they were dug in as Patch soon cleared his voice and spoke.

"They are thinly spread out. If we can attack the southern end of the city where their supply lines are, we have a good chance of starving the residents out and then we can move in on the city and occupy it." Patch explained the enemy's positions. Sherman nodded as he was going to get ready to move everyone out.

"I like the way you think. So I'll let you lead the charge. If you succeed, I might tell Grant to promote you since you are getting better riding your horse. Well we should get ready to move." William responded as he got up and began to lead Patch to the horse, it was clear they were getting close. They both mounted the horse as Sherman handed Patch a revolver as he had a Henry repeating rifle. Sherman soon looked as he began to speak "Troops of the Sherman corps, we are on the verge of victory, all we need to do is cut the supply lines to Atlanta and force the general to abandon it. When we do, we can begin the march to the sea as I planned on doing. We shall do this with your help and your help only after this, Atlanta shall be ours." Sherman soon began to lead off as the forces were heading off with him. The others followed him as they were getting ready to attack.

They soon returned to the spot where Patch was earlier as the Confederates were exchanging positions as they were still thinly spread along the front, Sherman and William looked at each other as they began to wander down the hill. He soon raised his revolver as a signal to move. The troops began to move out as they were beginning to make consolidations on their positions.

"Ready?" William asked wondering if Patch was completely ready for this. Patch nodded as Sherman raised his cavalry saber signaling the charge. Patch aimed down his rifle as he fired it at the confederates, the first shot struck the cat in the skull as he cocked the lever getting another shot ready. He fired another one off taking out another one as the cats continued to charge out against the railway they were hiding. The troops were beginning to charge over as Patch and Sherman were leading the charge. Patch raised the rifle again and fired off another shot before cocking it striking down a third cat. Soon the infantry decided to hit the thin lines as the confederates were firing back with their muskets. But seeing how spread out they were, they weren't able to hold their lines as they were beginning to melt away. They were beginning to peel away one by one as Patch watched them. He aimed his lever action rifle as he aimed then fired. The shot struck down another cat as he cocked the rifle. He soon aimed and fired again striking down another cat within a few seconds, he cocked the rifle again. They knew the situation was unattainable.

After Patch and William's actions in the area, they had cut the supply lines and General Hood was forced to abandon Atlanta. Atlanta, one of the most important cities to the confederates had fallen into the paws of the union paws.

* * *

Patch's POV

Patch was wandering through the city as he was looking out for the town and the residents were understandably confused. He soon reached his home as he was leading a small union patrol through the town. Lark and Petal saw that he was home as they ran out to him.

"Patch you're home!" They shouted. Lark shook his paw but Petal tackled him as she kissed him on his cheek.

"Did you win?" Petal asked wondering why he was back. Patch felt awkward about this but he had to be truthful to his sister.

"Well yes, but actually no." Patch responded. He soon showed them the patrol of union soldiers upon which he joined as they were busy distributing food to the very hungry population of Atlanta. Patch's friend ran over as she gave him a hug grateful that he was still alive. He soon released her as he got out some bread for the starving family of his. "Here, eat up, they must have been starving you out." They soon grabbed the rolls of bread as they began to eagerly eat them up as they were glad to have something to eat for once. Soon Sherman rode up to Patch as he was wondering what the commotion was about.

"Hey Patch, I see you're socializing with some of the residents, can you introduce them to me?" William asked as he was wondering who these strangers were. Patch soon turned to Sherman as he began to introduce them to him.

"The dark brown one is my younger brother Lark and the fluffy light brown one is my youngest sister Petal. I also have a girl that came along to help take care of the family whom I've fallen in love with." Patch introduced the rest of the family to Sherman. The general nodded as he spoke.

"What a lovely little family you got there. For now we should focus on feeding the hungry population of Atlanta. We'll be resting here for a while, come on let's continue feeding them." William responded as he rode off. Patch turned to his family as he wanted to follow Sherman.

"I promise I'll be back in the morning." He responded as he soon rode off with his friend. They all waved goodbye as they knew help was here.

As time went, on, the population of Atlanta began to recover; troops of the union were there to protect the supply lines as more food was coming in for the residents of the starving city. With Atlanta in their paws, the confederacy's defeat was now inevitable. Election Day was finally here and the troops were going to be there to vote.

"Hey no one vote for McClellan, he doesn't know how to run an army, just vote for Abraham again." Sherman made the announcement. Patch soon grabbed a ballot despite being 2 years younger than normal. He wanted to get his vote casted out as he too, decided to vote for Abraham. Soon Sherman came around collecting the ballots from the cats as they were wondering what the results were going to come. Patch was praying that Abraham was going to get reelected. Those prayers were going to be answered.

A few days later the results were back. Patch was busy spending some time with Sherman as he was still learning his Lever action rifle. He soon shot down another bottle before heading to reload.

"You're becoming an expert sharpshooter with that. I sense you want this to be your weapon of choice?" William gave him the compliment. Patch nodded as he finished reloading all of his shots. Soon one of the voters came to him as he was excited.

"Mister Sherman, the results of the election are back. Abraham won the election with more than 90% of the votes!" The cat shouted as they were stunned. A president that won more than 90% of the votes was a blue moon scenario but seeing how the troops overwhelmingly voted for Abraham, was something that was touching for their president.

"That's great now we should go ahead and finish this bloody war already. No cat can lead us better than Abraham. Now we have to make plans to march to the sea if we are willing to strike a major blow to their effort." William was grateful for the fact that the war was turning as he wanted to see a conclusion to the fighting.

"What do you mean by march to the sea?" Patch asked as he was curious about the plan Sherman had in mind. Sherman turned to Patch as he began to explain.

"I want to march through the confederate heartland and cause as much damage to it as possible and we won't stop until we reach the coast, from there we will burn everything down in our path and liberate the slaves that they held. Hopefully they will be able to join us. Once we reach the coast. I want to reunite with General Grant as we continue the march to destroying the confederates. Once that is done, they will have no choice to surrender. I would like to spend one more week in Atlanta before putting the plan in action and I want you to help me carry the torch." William explained to Patch his plans for destruction. Patch nodded as he needed to say goodbye to his family again but he knew that it wasn't going to be easy.

* * *

Abraham's POV

Abraham was busy enjoying some time with Frederick as McClellan walked in as he was droopy with his defeat at the election. Abraham was nice to him as he paused his conversation with Frederick as he soon spoke to McClellan.

"Hey man, looks like you lost. No hard feelings?" Abraham asked as he was wondering if McClellan was okay with losing the election. McClellan was pretty angry about all of this as he spoke.

"I didn't lose, I merely failed to win!" George shouted as he left the white house. It was clear he wasn't going to be heard for the rest of the war.

* * *

Patch's POV

Patch wandered to his homestead as he wanted to break the news to his family as he was ready to make his big plan come true but he was going to be away for when it happened. He soon approached the three of them as he had to break the news.

"Well I got some news, I'm going away again. I need to be with the union as we're heading to the beach. I want you to get yourselves to safety, Head up through Tennessee by train and into Kentucky. You'll be safe up there I promise. Get yourselves to D.C. if possible. I'll be there when the war is finished." Patch promised laying out his plan for them as he wanted to make sure they were safe as he was going to complete his plan. Lark looked at him.

"Stay safe big brother." Lark responded. Patch nodded as he turned and left. His plan was just about to go into action.

The destructive march to the sea was about to begin.

**[A/N]: We hit the 2 year milestone with my account. 2 years I am telling you. I felt like I was writing for fun but now I have a group of friends to cater to who like my work and since we managed to hit 240 views and a favorite from a fellow fan. I find it touching.**

**Also two things happened on the 14****th**** of April, my sister turned 22 and I decided to watch the play Our American Cousin in honor of Abraham which I will make a reference to at the end so like always, keep a look out for the next chapter.**


	29. Sherman on the March

Sherman and Patch were heading along as they were getting ready to begin their movements into the heartland. Patch soon turned to him as he spoke.

"Well I told my family to get on out of there and last night they left for the north. I am praying for their safety. Now I'm ready to march to the sea." Patch mewed as he began loading up his lever action rifle. Sherman looked at him as he nodded.

"Yeah I noticed. Once we get moving, we will make Georgia howl in agony. Be prepared to move." William responded as he had similar goals to Patch's. Patch soon went on his horse as Sherman continued to speak. "I have a plan that will force the Confederacy to surrender, an army can only survive with the support of the citizens, strike at the citizens and the army collapses. We will remove all the troops from their supply lines and march through the heartland of the confederacy." Sherman mounted his horse as he knew he wasn't going to stop at anything. Soon they began to march away from Atlanta as they had the intention of destroying as much of the land as possible.

**November 16****th****, 1864, Mapleshade's Old plantation, Georgia**

Sherman and Patch were coming to an area upon which Patch was very familiar with. He soon took out his binoculars as he began to look out.

"Yeah that's the plantation all right. Belonged to my mother's and her mother before her, spent the first few years in there. We don't know how many slaves there might be." Patch muttered as he puts the binoculars down. Sherman nodded as he didn't even say a word. He soon raised his saber as he waved it around ordering the advance. Patch nodded as he began to take the lead.

The infantry and Patch soon lead the charge, the two guards at the front door turned as they raised their muskets. Patch having a lever rifle fired the first shot striking down one of the guards before cycling the action of the rifle. The guard fired his musket but the musket missed Patch by a hair as he focused on the second guard as he fired that shot. The bullet tearing into the second guards neck tearing him down. One of the union troops raced up as he soon lit some dynamite on the door as he tossed it down. The dynamite exploded tearing a hole into the house. Soon the troops began to funnel in as Sherman galloped up to Patch as he handed him an oily rag.

"Let the troops take care of the house, for now we head to the cotton fields." William responded. He and Patch soon galloped off as the troops were firing and screaming their heads off inside the house. They soon reached the cotton fields where hundreds of slaves were tending the fields. Sherman soon lit the oily rag on fire as it Patch tossed it. The cotton plants quickly caught fire as Patch turned to the slaves.

"Run free! This is not your home, you're free from the slave holders and keep fighting for your freedom!" Patch shouted as the Slaves soon ripped off branches of cotton as they lit them on fire. They soon began running, hollering at the top of their lungs lighting the field of cotton on fire. The Slave owning cat came out as he found a moment to shout at his slaves.

"Hey get back to work you filthy Negroes!" He shouted. All he got in response was a burning branch of cotton as the ground nearby caught fire. He soon turned up as he shouted again. "You better get back to work before I bring the whip out!" He shouted soon, he looked up as he suddenly couldn't feel anything. He soon collapsed to the ground as he had been shot by Patch. Patch looked on smug as he cycled the lever rifle as he and Sherman decided to abandon the scene, the fire soon began to burn the house down with the aid of some black cats who were now free. They soon galloped off with the others as they were going to continue their rampage.

This was one of many incidents that Patch, Sherman and the army undertook. As they marched through Georgia, they tore up railroads, burned farms and towns to the ground and destroyed communication lines. But they also liberated thousands upon thousands of slaves. The tactics to them were cruel and now, the heroes were now the villains and didn't seem so innocent anymore. The screams of dying cats were heard throughout the state which the marched and side effects. This was only the beginning.

The troops soon arrived in the town as this was one of the many stopping off points for the railroads. Patch nodded as he gave the right away to begin burning the town down. He soon grabbed a torch and headed for the cotton storage. He soon lights the refined cotton on fire as the fire began to burn the material down. Other blue uniformed cats grabbed the torches as they began to burn the buildings down. The citizens of the south began to scream as they were running from their homes. And since there were no confederates around, the just let them burn the town down. Patch and the others rode off seeing what else they could plunder. The damage in modern estimates would sum up to 1.4 billion dollars. And as for Sherman, it was better than losing more lives in battle.

The march to the sea had taken about less than 5 weeks to reach to Savannah as Patch looked at Sherman as he wanted to speak to him.

"So we reached the sea, does this mean we're finished?" Patch asked looking over the ocean. Sherman turned his head to him as he wanted to see what his proposition was. He soon began to speak to Patch.

"Not yet, even though we definitely dealt significant damage to the army as I now wanted to turn north and inflict my vengeance on the first state that left the union. Hopefully I can reunite with Grant and we can finish the confederates, off. I don't know what position they're in but I just want this war finished as much as you do." William spoke. He soon turned as he began to prepare his next plan on how to carry this out. He wanted to march through Charleston to Columbus and then onward. With the liberated slaves running wild, they knew their work was finished here.

* * *

Robert's POV

Robert was sitting around in the trenches as he was wondering when this siege would end. He had placed static defenses up but they were going nowhere. He soon turned seeing a familiar face riding on a horse as the cat approached. It was Mapleshade as she was approaching the front lines as quickly as possible. He was grateful that she was still alive.

"Maple Leaf you're back, how was the raid on Washington, did you bait any of their forces away?" Robert asked as he was wondering if the plan had worked. Mapleshade looked down as she wasn't so sure. She soon spoke after a minute.

"It ultimately backfired sir; someone just had to light the field on fire completely. We were ultimately pushed back, their president was attending as I was wondering if I could get a shot on him but my shot missed and now I don't think I will have another chance at getting him." Mapleshade spoke as she knew there was simply no way she could now get that president. Robert was thankful that she was alive and well. But they had no more chances in trying to threaten the north.

"Well it's only a matter of time the plan of this is if they break through, flee to D.C. Blend in with the crowd and kill that president that you despise so much." Robert responded. He was ultimately interrupted as the President Jefferson, Davis had showed up. He looked at all of the depressed and demoralized troops.

"Why is everyone so sad and droopy, the war ain't over yet baby! Get up and keep fighting! We can still win!" Jefferson called out partying but to the troops, they had no reason to party as the war was now a lost cause. But they needed to keep holding out. Mapleshade knew that she was going to stand back and relax as she had no point to continue the fight.

* * *

Abraham's POV

It was Abraham's second inauguration as he wanted to make the speech to his fellow troops and fellow troopers about it. Black union cats stood in formation as they were to represent the home guard as well as the president's guard. He knew he didn't want to celebrate, he didn't want to gloat. He soon cleared his voice as he spoke.

"Fellow Countrymen. At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention, and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. On the occasion corresponding to this, four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil-war. All dreaded it all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war, seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties' deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came. One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern half part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same Starclan; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just Starclan's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has their own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!" If we shall suppose that Thunderclan Slavery is one of those offences which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living Starclan always ascribe to them? Fondly do we hope fervently do we pray that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if Starclan wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said four, three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether" With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan to achieve and cherish a lasting peace among ourselves and with the world. to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with the world. all nations. Now let us strive on to finish the work we are in, and to bind up the clan's wounds." Abraham had passed the 13th amendment that made Slavery and being forced to serve someone else without punishment permanently banished from the soil. Frederick and the other black cats looked on as they knew the work was only just beginning. Thunderclan cats, north or south were to once again be compatriots.

However, one cat watching Abraham speak had no interest in reunification at all. John Wilkes Booth. An actor living in D.C. who was also a deep southern sympathizer, he was depressed and full of hate and he was plotting his revenge on the cat he held responsible.

He soon went to his favorite bar as he wanted to get some alcohol to wash down the fear. The Bartender turned to him as he was wondering what he wanted.

"What can I get you tonight Mister Booth?" He asked as he was wondering on what he wanted. He began polishing a glass as John soon decided on what he wanted.

"A glass of Brandy should do me good." John responded. The Bartender began pouring him a glass of it. John took it as he began to drink it. He knew that he wanted to go after the president unaware Mapleshade was doing the same thing but to him, he needed help. And when they met, their paths would decide the future.

**[A/N]: Victory is right around the corner for the Union. It's checkmate for the Confederates as they have no chance in trying to recuperate from their losses. Next chapter will hopefully be their eventual surrender as they are seeing no need to continue the fight. We also hit 250 views and hopefully hit 275 by the time this story is over. That's all for now.**


	30. Robert Surrenders and the War's over

With Sherman and Patch's advance threatening the confederate heart land, it was only a matter of time as General Johnston and continue the fight however that chance would never come.

* * *

Mapleshade's POV

The siege of Petersburg had lasted for 292 days. 60,000 of General's Lee's troops have either deserted or left to fight on other fronts to halt Sherman's advance. Numerous breakthrough attempts like the Battle of the Crater in chapter 27 had failed. But when the breakthrough finally arrived, it came quick.

**April 2****nd****, 1865, Petersburg, Virginia**

The trenches were mostly empty except for a few cats that had decided to stay. Leadership was gutted down to just Robert and Mapleshade. The troops had low morale and no need to keep fighting. Soon there was a hissing sound as it was clear something was happening.

"Do you hear that?" Mapleshade asked wondering what was going on. Robert heard it too as he was wondering on what was going on.

"Yeah I hear it too. We got no leaders except for just us and we only got less than a hundred troops left. If we get assaulted, we would have no choice but to evacuate." Robert responded. And sure enough, several explosions went off tearing hole into the trenches. Mapleshade and Robert were luckily unharmed but they might be the only lucky ones. Several cats were severely injured from the blast. "It's time we abandoned Petersburg, we need to flee!" Robert was the first to bolt off as Mapleshade followed in panic. Those troops that were unaffected soon began to retreat. Those that were injured decided to stay behind to fight. Robert and Mapleshade got on their horses as they began to gallop away from the trenches. They could hear the breathing of union troops on their necks as they made a get away from the city. "You remember the plan Maple leaf, head to D.C. and try to blend in with the crowd. We can possibly start another uprising but this one is done." Mapleshade nodded as she knew this would truly be the last time she saw Robert. She turned away as she would begin her trip northward for D.C. as Robert headed straight for Richmond.

* * *

Robert's POV

Robert had entered into Richmond as he was panicking. Jefferson looked at him as he was wondering if he would come back to save them. Robert looked around as he wanted to give the message to evacuate. Jefferson walked over to him as he was wondering why Robert was in such a rush to leave.

"There's no need to evacuate right? You'll rescue us like last time right?" Jefferson asked as he wanted to see if he was going to be there to save them like those years ago. Robert seeing the situation change for the worse decided that general evacuation was now the plan.

"I'm sorry I can't hear ya! Tell the population of Richmond to evacuate." Robert soon swatted his horse as they began to run from the city. "Tell everyone to set fire to all the military buildings in Richmond so none of the intel falls into enemy paws." Robert was soon out of sight as he knew he had escaped with his life.

Robert narrowly escaped from Richmond. Ulysses was preparing to chase him down. The population of Richmond heard the memo as they quickly packed what they could carry as they all decided to head out on wagons or train. Jefferson Davis went on the run. As they left, the Richmond Garrison decided to burn down the military buildings but in their haste, they forgot to keep the fire burning locally as the flames were now out of control burning the entirety of Richmond. When Union troops entered Richmond an hour later, they began to try to put out the fire any way they could. However it wasn't enough. Robert knew he had to move south to meet up with General Johnston and continue the war any way possible.

* * *

Abraham's POV

**April 4****th****, 1865, Richmond, Virginia**

Abraham began to tour the captured capitol of Richmond as the city was now in ruins. It was clear someone had to burn the city down so none of it would be used against them. The fellow black cats that were assisting him began moving around the wreck as they knew there was nothing.

"They deserted like magic and they decided to destroy their capitol as well. It's best we should let General Grant finish him off. The confederacy might be demoralized already and will hopefully surrender so. Let's finish this war." Abraham mewed as he soon gave his orders. He soon turned away as he and the others continued their patrol. It was clear that things were finally wrapping up.

* * *

Robert's POV

Ulysses caught up with Robert at Appomattox Court House as he trapped his forces. And it was only a week later after the fall of Petersburg when Robert decided to give up.

"It's over, we can't continue the fight. No matter how hard we try, it's just too difficult for us. Now I say we surrender today seeing how this situation is nothing that is worth continuing on. I suppose there is nothing for me to do but go and see General Grant. And I would rather die a thousand deaths." Robert got up as he knew there was nothing more that he could do. He soon began walking off as he knew that the war was now as good as done.

* * *

Ulysses POV

**April 9****th****, 1865, Appomattox Court House, Virginia**

"Uh sir?" One of the cats asked Ulysses who was lounging around in the sun like nothing was happening. He wanted to give the news to him, Ulysses looked at him as he was not in the mood to hear anything.

"Listen bub. I drank a bit too much last night and now I'm hanging like a fruit bat on a hot day so whatever you have to say, I don't want to hear it." Ulysses groaned as he didn't want to wake up at all. Soon the cat knew he had to make it brief as he only had one thing on his mind.

"Uh, General Lee says he wants to surrender." Hew mewed. Ulysses' eyes shot open as he knew he had to find him.

"HOT DIGGITY DOG!" Ulysses shouted as he sprang to his paws. He soon ran off as he wanted find General Lee.

Robert and Ulysses soon met in the house of a nearby farm family that tried to escape the Civil war years earlier. Wilmer knew he was found out but seeing that they weren't fighting and instead making peace, he knew he had to hurry them along. Robert was sitting at the table as Ulysses was sitting close by. Ulysses began the conversation.

"I met you once before, General Lee, while we were serving in Mexico, when you came over from General Scott's headquarters to visit Garland's brigade, to which I then belonged. I have always remembered your appearance, and I think I should have recognized you anywhere." Robert soon nodded as there was some refreshments being served. Robert soon spoke next.

"Yes, I know I met you on that occasion, and I have often thought of it and tried to recollect how you looked, but I have never been able to recall a single feature." Robert replied. He knew he had to keep his composure. Ulysses looked at him as he didn't want to laugh even though what he said was funny.

"Very well, I will write them out." Ulysses replied. He soon turned his head to one of the cats that was attending with him as he wanted something from him. "Hey can you pass me my manifold order-book?" He asked. One of the union cats nodded as he raced off to get it. He soon came back as he placed it on the table as Ulysses continued to write. He wrote the surrender terms very rapidly as he knew that he didn't want to hand everything off to Robert but Robert shouldn't receive any humiliation either he finished writing with the sentence: This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor their private horses or baggage. Ulysses soon turned the book over as the surrender terms read this.

General R.E. Lee,  
Commanding C.S.A.  
APPOMATTOX Ct H., Va.,  
April 9,1865,

General; In accordance with the substance of my letter to you of the 8th inst., I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia on the following terms, to wit: Rolls of all officers and men to be made in duplicate, one copy to be given to an officer to be designated by me, the other to be retained by such officer or officers as you may designate. The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the Government of Thunderclan until properly exchanged, and each company or regimental commander to sign a like parole for the men of their commands. The arms, artillery, and public property to be parked, and stacked, and turned over to the officers appointed by me to receive them. This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor their private horses or baggage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to his home, not to be disturbed by Thunderclan authorities so long as they observe their paroles, and the laws in force where they may reside.

Very respectfully,  
U.S. Grant,  
Lieutenant-General

Robert looked at the terms for a moment as he was reading them out. Seeing how he didn't want to continue the fight. He soon lifted his paw with a feather and ink, wrote his name down under the surrender terms. Soon Wilmer being the impatient cat that he was, decided to try to get them to go away.

"All right can we pleased try to get this over with?" Wilmer asked as he wasn't taking this too kindly. Soon a buzz of a vacuum was heard as Wilmer looked around seeing his wife Martha cleaning up the place as he didn't take this too kindly. "Martha? Not now!" He called out. Martha shuts off the vacuum as she looked at her husband.

"I'M CLEANING! Do you want us to get rats?" Martha shouted as she didn't want them to stay. Ulysses and Robert decided to take it outside as Wilmer and Martha continued to argue. Once outside, Robert spoke first.

"I know we seen each other as enemies but for now. I felt peace among our troops. For once Thunderclan cats don't have the need to tear each other's throats out but seeing that I have lost, I think I could accept it. Even if I got the victories, I know I shouldn't be too proud of them. It is well that _war_ is so terrible, or _we_ should _grow_ too _fond of it_." Robert responded as he got ready to turn away and mount his horse. Ulysses soon turned as he wanted to speak to Robert before he left.

"Listen I know we have had our times we get to run wild but when two bulls meet each other in the field, one of them would need to back off seeing how they can't try to fight off. Someone will get tired at the end of the day and even I didn't have the confidence seeing how I drank a lot over the years and smoked on many cigars. I was hoping to say, we did a good job over these past few years. I'll see you around." Ulysses responded as he wanted to tell Robert to take care after he surrendered. Maybe they would see each other again one day but for now it wasn't going to be a while.

"Take care Ulysses." Robert responded. He soon turned and mounted his horse as his face filled with emotion. He soon rode off as the others began to cheer in celebration. Ulysses lowered his paw ordering them to stop. It was clear that there needed be time so that Robert got some reconciliation.

* * *

Abraham POV

Across the north, church bells rang out as cats of multiple pelt colors cheered as they knew the north had just won. Frederick knew it was more than appropriate to celebrate. Abraham was at the White House as he was preparing a speech.

**April 11****th****, 1865, White House, Washington D.C.**

"We meet this evening, not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart. The evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, and the surrender of the principal insurgent army, give hope of a righteous and speedy peace whose joyous expression cannot be restrained. In the midst of this, however, He from whom all blessings flow must not be forgotten. A call for a national thanksgiving is being prepared, and will be duly promulgated. Nor must those whose harder part gives us the cause of rejoicing, be overlooked. Their honors must not be parceled out with others. I myself was near the front, and had the high pleasure of transmitting much of the good news to you; but no part of the honor, for plan or execution, is mine. To Gen. Grant, his skillful officers, and brave men, all belongs. The gallant Navy stood ready, but was not in reach to take active part. By these recent successes the re-inauguration of the national authority, reconstruction which has had a large share of thought from the first, is pressed much more closely upon our attention. It is fraught with great difficulty. Unlike a case of a war between independent nations, there is no authorized organ for us to treat with. No one man has authority to give up the rebellion for any other man. We simply must begin with, and would from, disorganized and discordant elements. Nor is it a small additional embarrassment that we, the loyal people, differ among ourselves as to the mode, manner, and means of reconstruction. As a general rule, I abstain from reading the reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to which I cannot properly offer an answer. In spite of this precaution, however, it comes to my knowledge that I am much censured for some supposed agency in setting up, and seeking to sustain, the new State government of Louisiana. In this I have done just so much as, and no more than, the public knows. In the Annual Message of Dec. 1863 and accompanying Proclamation, I presented _a_ plan of re-construction as the phrase goes which, I promised, if adopted by any State, should be acceptable to, and sustained by, the Executive government of the nation. I distinctly stated that this was not the only plan which might possibly be acceptable; and I also distinctly protested that the Executive claimed no right to say when, or whether members should be admitted to seats in Congress from such States. This plan was, in advance, submitted to the then Cabinet, and distinctly approved by every member of it. One of them suggested that I should then, and in that connection, apply the Emancipation Proclamation to the theretofore excepted parts of Virginia and Louisiana; that I should drop the suggestion about apprenticeship for freed-people, and that I should omit the protest against my own power, in regard to the admission of members to Congress; but even he approved every part and parcel of the plan which has since been employed or touched by the action of Louisiana. The new constitution of Louisiana, declaring emancipation for the whole State, practically applies the Proclamation to the part previously excepted. It does not adopt apprenticeship for freed-people; and it is silent, as it could not well be otherwise, about the admission of members to Congress. So that, as it applies to Louisiana, every member of the Cabinet fully approved the plan. The message went to Congress, and I received many commendations of the plan, written and verbal; and not a single objection to it, from any professed emancipationist, came to my knowledge, until after the news reached Washington that the people of Louisiana had begun to move in accordance with it. From about July 1862, I had corresponded with different persons, supposed to be interested, seeking a reconstruction of a State government for Louisiana. When the message of 1863, with the plan before mentioned, reached New-Orleans, Gen. Banks wrote me that he was confident the cats, with his military co-operation, would reconstruct, substantially on that plan. I wrote him, and some of them to try it; they tried it, and the result is known. Such only has been my agency in getting up the Louisiana government. As to sustaining it, my promise is out, as before stated. But, as bad promises are better broken than kept, I shall treat this as a bad promise, and break it, whenever I shall be convinced that keeping it is adverse to the public interest. But I have not yet been so convinced. I have been shown a letter on this subject, supposed to be an able one, in which the writer expresses regret that my mind has not seemed to be definitely fixed on the question whether the seceding States, so called, are in the Union or out of it. It would perhaps, add astonishment to his regret, were he to learn that since I have found professed Union toms endeavoring to make that question, I have purposely forborne any public expression upon it. As appears to me that question has not been, nor yet is, a practically material one, and that any discussion of it, while it thus remains practically immaterial, could have no effect other than the mischievous one of dividing our friends. As yet, whatever it may hereafter become, that question is bad, as the basis of a controversy, and good for nothing at all-a merely pernicious abstraction. We all agree that the seceded States, so called, are out of their proper relation with the Union; and that the sole object of the government, civil and military, in regard to those States is to again get them into that proper practical relation. I believe it is not only possible, but in fact, easier to do this, without deciding, or even considering, whether these States have ever been out of the Union, than with it. Finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly immaterial whether they had ever been abroad. Let us all join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper practical relations between these States and the Union; and each forever after, innocently indulge his own opinion whether, in doing the acts, he brought the States from without, into the Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never having been out of it. The amount of constituency, so to speak, on which the new Louisiana government rests, would be more satisfactory to all, if it contained fifty, thirty, or even twenty thousand, instead of only about twelve thousand, as it does. It is also unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is not given to the colored man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers. Still the question is not whether the Louisiana government, as it stands, is quite all that is desirable. The question is, "Will it be wiser to take it as it is, and help to improve it; or to reject, and disperse it?" "Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical relation with the Union sooner by sustaining, or by discarding her new State government?" Some twelve thousand voters in the heretofore slave-state of Louisiana have sworn allegiance to the Union, assumed to be the rightful political power of the State, held elections, organized a State government, adopted a free-state constitution, giving the benefit of public schools equally to black and white, and empowering the Legislature to confer the elective franchise upon the colored man. Their Legislature has already voted to ratify the constitutional amendment recently passed by Congress, abolishing slavery throughout the nation. These twelve thousand persons are thus fully committed to the Union, and to perpetual freedom in the state-committed to the very things, and nearly all the things the nation wants-and they ask the nations recognition and it's assistance to make good their committal. Now, if we reject, and spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize and disperse them. We in effect say to the white men "You are worthless, or worse-we will neither help you, nor be helped by you." To the blacks we say "This cup of liberty which these, your old masters, hold to your lips, we will dash from you, and leave you to the chances of gathering the spilled and scattered contents in some vague and undefined when, where, and how." If this course, discouraging and paralyzing both white and black, has any tendency to bring Louisiana into proper practical relations with the Union, I have, so far, been unable to perceive it. If, on the contrary, we recognize, and sustain the new government of Louisiana the converse of all this is made true. We encourage the hearts, and nerve the arms of the twelve thousand to adhere to their work, and argue for it, and proselyte for it, and fight for it, and feed it, and grow it, and ripen it to a complete success. The colored man too, in seeing all united for him, is inspired with vigilance, and energy, and daring, to the same end. Grant that he desires the elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner by saving the already advanced steps toward it, than by running backward over them? Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only to what it should be as the egg is to the fowl; we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it? Again, if we reject Louisiana, we also reject one vote in favor of the proposed amendment to the national Constitution. To meet this proposition, it has been argued that no more than three fourths of those States which have not attempted secession are necessary to validly ratify the amendment. I do not commit myself against this, further than to say that such a ratification would be questionable, and sure to be persistently questioned; while a ratification by three-fourths of all the States would be unquestioned and unquestionable. I repeat the question, "Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical relation with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new State Government? What has been said of Louisiana will apply generally to other States. And yet so great peculiarities pertain to each state, and such important and sudden changes occur in the same state; and withal, so new and unprecedented is the whole case, that no exclusive, and inflexible plan can be safely prescribed as to details and collaterals [sic]. Such exclusive, and inflexible plan, would surely become a new entanglement. Important principles may, and must, be inflexible. In the present _"_situation_"_ as the phrase goes, it may be my duty to make some new announcement to the people of the South. I am considering, and shall not fail to act, when satisfied that action will be proper." Abraham made his speech to a jubilant crowd. Among the things he wanted he wanted Black cats to get voting rights and citizenship. Abraham had seen Thunderclan through its deepest crisis. He was exhausted but this was now over.

**[A/N}: Civil war is over, Confederates are surrendering and with this we should hopefully see the rest of the story unfold. Would Mapleshade achieve her goals? I will come back to you in the next chapter.**


	31. Mapleshade shoots Abraham

Abraham was riding in a carriage with Mary as he wanted to take her out for a ride. Abraham looked very cheerful today as he soon began to speak.

"You know Mary; I feel the sun on my face today as we definitely chosen a good day to go riding. That sun is like you sometimes as I feel like I needed some sunshine in my life. Especially since these past few years have been cloudy and gloomy. Between the Civil war and the death of our son, we both felt pretty miserable. Now it's time to be happy." Abraham mewed as he knew that the civil war definitely puts a damper on things but now he sensed that peace has finally washed over the land and the clouds have left leaving a bright blue sky above them.

"Abe you seem so joyful about this? How do you think we should be happy as I am surprised about this? I know you're looking forward to being a president in a time of peace. Got any ideas on how we should celebrate?" Mary asked as she was wondering on how to do this. She looked at Abraham as she knew he had an answer to everything. Soon Abraham surprised her.

"I bought ourselves two tickets to a play at Ford's Theater this Friday. Some of our friends will be attending such as Ambrose and Frederick. And our seats are balcony seats meaning we get full view of the play." Abraham responded with excitement as he presented two tickets just for them. The play was going to be a comedy as they knew they wanted some time to be joyful.

"Oh Abe, you're so considerate. I knew I wanted to laugh like a honking goose when there is food around." Mary spoke as she knew that she would accept his request.

* * *

Mapleshade's POV

Mapleshade had been on the move for the past 11 days as she made her way from Petersburg to D.C. in the hopes that she wasn't caught by the union forces. She was suspicious about this as she had no army to back her up. She needed some place to hide. She soon spotted a bar as She soon dismounted her horse and went inside. The Bartender looked at her.

"What can I do for you missy?" He asked as he was wondering if she could have a drink. Mapleshade ignored him as she wanted something else.

"I need a place to hide so no one finds me or senses any suspicion. If they do I might get tracked down and caught." Mapleshade mewed as she wanted to make her plans to flee westward.

"Sure you can settle down if you wish." The Bartender soon turned as he went back to polishing the cups as Mapleshade breathed one huge sigh of relief but she had a new goal in mind, taking down Abraham but how could she do it? Fortunately a plan was to fall upon her.

Soon John Wilkes Booth entered the bar as he was looking for a drink. He saw Mapleshade as he approached her with curiosity. He looked at her.

"What's a missy such as yourself contemplating about?" John asked. He soon pulled a chair right next to her as he was wondering what the she-cat was up to.

"Thinking about taking down the president." Mapleshade groaned as she knew something like that was so far out of her reach. John looked at her as he spoke.

"You know I can slip in and help you." He mewed. Mapleshade's eyes perked up as she had interest. She turned her head to him as she was wondering if he had anything in mind. "I tried to kidnap the president but that wasn't going to work so might as well shoot him." Mapleshade looked at him as she wondered how he was going to pull this off. "I will need a horse though."

"I got a horse outside, we should be able to make our getaway. I would be able to go in there and take care of the president." Mapleshade mewed as she wanted to be trusted with that job. John looked at her wondering if she was crazy.

"I was wondering if I wanted to do it and you wait out there for me to come and get him and we can make our getaway." John responded as he wanted to do that job. Mapleshade nodded.

"It's best a lady such as myself does this. Someone such as myself would be able to slip in there unnoticed and take out the president with one shot to the face. Give me some pointers on what he might be doing tomorrow and we can put a plan into action." Mapleshade mewed as she wanted to come up with a plan. John nodded, their plan was going into action.

* * *

Abraham's POV

**April 14****th****, 1865, Ford's Theater, Washington D.C.**

Abraham and Mary arrived to the theater as they wanted to celebrate the time of peace. They wanted the night out alone as several cats agreed to meet with them. Ambrose, Frederick and Harriet were all there as they wanted to attend the play as well.

"Abraham, welcome. Our Thunderclan cousin is the play that is on and we hope you like it." Ambrose mewed as he bowed to the president. Mary soon bowed as in a she-cat's respect.

"I hope I have a good day as well, where's our seats?" Abraham asked as he wondered where he and Mary would be sitting. He bowed his top hat in respect. Frederick looked at him as he spoke.

"You got balcony seats for the play. Me, Ambrose and my new friend Harriet got front row seats as we hope you all enjoy." Frederick responded. Abraham laughed.

"High up means we get the best view of the nest." Abraham responded as he was excited about it. They soon decided to head for their seats as they went to their seats. They soon sat down in their respective seats as the audience was wild with delight as they were happy to see the president attend the play. Soon with the theater full, the lights dimmed as the cats looked on as the actors began to make their appearance.

"I don't know how you may feel as a visitor, Mr. Buddicombe, but I think this is a most uncomfortable family." One of the she-cats mewed as she began the play, the others looked on with amusement ready to laugh whenever one of them said something funny.

"Very uncomfortable. I have no curtain to my bed." A tom responded as he was complaining about it.

"And no wine at the second table." Another she-cat complained as she was complaining that there was nothing to drink.

"And meaner servants I never seed." She hissed as she wasn't able to get anything done.

"I'm afraid Sir Edward is in a queer strait." The same tom responded as he wanted to poke fun at someone

"Yes, for only this morning, Mr. Binny, Mrs. Skillet says he—" The same she-cat responded. Soon the tom playing Mr. Binny entered the scene as he interrupted them.

"Mind your hown business instead hof your betters. I'm disgusted with you lower servants. When the wine merchant presents his bills, you men, hear me, say he's been pressing for the last six months, do you?" The tom hissed as he didn't want them to be talking about their servants. One of the she-cats spoke.

"Nor I, that the last year's milliner's bills have not been paid." She mewed. Everyone bursts out laughing as this play was meant to be a comedy and the president appeared to be enjoying it very much.

* * *

Mapleshade's POV

John had swallowed two glasses of brandy as he wasn't feeling like his usual self as he was dizzy.

"Well looks like I might be too drunk myself to really go out there and shoot the president myself. My boys will be going after other targets but it will be up to you to take out the president, I'll have the horse out there as I will be waiting for you." John responded. Mapleshade nodded as she was now wondering.

"How do I get into the theater without getting noticed?" Mapleshade asked. She didn't want to get caught in the middle of the act. John knew the theater's layout as he soon exited with Mapleshade following as they both headed to the back entrance of the theater. She dismounted as John spoke to her.

"Enter back through here, climb the stairs to the presidents balcony. Once done, you race off back here through the back stage you came from and we'll make our get away." John told her as she nodded. She opened the door as she entered. Mapleshade knew that she needed to pull this off without getting noticed.

Mapleshade continued into the theater as she was looking for the staircase to climb up that John told her about. While she made her way through, other performers from other plays were getting ready or heading out. She paid no attention to them as she trotted along. The sounds of the play currently happening were still being heard as well as the laughter from the audience. Mapleshade paid no attention to it as one of the actors spoke.

"Oh! you want to get out of the draft, do you? The draft has already been stopped by order of the President! Is that the dairy on top of that stick?" One of the toms mewed as he pointed to the pigeon house. That line was modified in honor of Abraham as the crowd continued to laugh. Mapleshade didn't get caught up in the laughter as she soon found the stairwell as she began to climb it. She knew she couldn't run without getting noticed as she slowly climbed up.

It took a while as she got to the top as they were now in the 3rd act of the play. The audience was still laughing hard as they some of them didn't notice Mapleshade sneaking her way through the play as she was sneaking up on the president. All she had to do was wait when the audience was laughing so loud that she would shoot him. She clutched her revolver waiting for that moment but soon that moment came.

"Don't know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal—you sockdologizing old man-trap." One of the toms with a country accent spoke. The crowd bursts out laughing so hard that Mapleshade saw the chance. With one swift motion she quickly drew her revolver as she fired a shot off, the bullet landing square in the back of Abraham's head. Mapleshade soon ran as she was now successful as she jumped and flew in the air.

"That one was for the confederacy!" Mapleshade shouted as she soon landed on the stage before the characters had a chance. She had a sprained leg due to the fall onto a wooden stage. She soon got up as she hissed: "Sic semper Tyrannis!" She hissed as she soon ran off as a voice rang out from the balcony.

"President Abraham has been shot!" The voice sounded. The cats soon began to panic as their president had an attempt on his life. The play was suspended for the rest of the performance as Abraham was carried from the theater to a nearby boarding house. Mapleshade soon exited the theater as she was grinning happily as she managed to pull it off.

"I managed to do it now let's get out of here before anyone finds out we were here." Mapleshade excitedly mewed as she mounted the horse. John smiled as they knew they had accomplished something. Soon they were off to an unknown fate as they fled the city.

* * *

Unknown POV

Despite everything the doctors could do, their work was to go in vain as they knew that they couldn't save the president. They soon came out to the wife of the president who was in tears, his remaining kits and members of his cabinet. They had to break the news.

"I'm sorry but President Abraham had passed away. I don't know how Thunderclan as a whole would react to this. We're sending out teams to track the killers down. Your president wouldn't go unavenged." One of the doctors mewed as everyone began weeping. Despite not liking him at first, they had grown on the president over the years. Frederick turned as he buried his head in his paws seeing the death of a fellow friend. Others headed off as they were to deal with the loss their own way. Abraham wasn't going to leave them. The funeral would last for 12 days as they carried his body back to Springfield, Illinois.

* * *

Patch's POV

"Okay you win!" Joseph shouted as he was being ravaged in North Carolina. His army of 89,000 confederates were done. Sherman and Patch looked out as they had just secured the largest surrender of the war. Not every state had surrendered but the war was as good as done. Patch looked out as he motioned for the rounding of the surrendering troops. Sherman turned to Patch.

"You impress me rookie. I never knew we come this far but seeing how we marched through and got to the sea, I think you deserve to be promoted." William mewed as he wanted to give Patch a promotion. Patch nodded as he sensed that he was going to get one for a while but that moment didn't come until now.

"Aww thanks. I knew you were saving that for me. No moment for one is better than now." Patch mewed as he deserve one until now seeing how they managed to make all the confederates surrender. Sherman turned to Patch.

"Yeah now let's go find General Grant and…" Before William could finish his sentence he saw a calico she-cat on a horse running across the field as he wasn't able to recognize her. "Missy halt!" She didn't respond as she kept going. She had intentions on heading south and then west. Sherman turned to Patch giving him the authority to shoot her. Patch raised his lever action rifle as he took a shot at her. The bullet hitting her kneecap as the she-cat howled in agony. She soon fell off her horse as some of the troops came to round up the horse. Sherman and Patch ran over to the cat that they shot as she was holding her kneecap in agony the cat they had in fact shot, was Mapleshade. She was in huge trouble.

**[A/N]: This took a very long time to make as I was busy and hoping that I can kill time for May 19****th**** and I didn't want to procrastinate until that time came and hopefully this would be enough to hold you over. Other than that we need to rake in some more views in the near future and what will happen to Mapleshade when she is caught. Find out in the conclusion when she is put on trial. That is all, goodbye.**


	32. Death of Mapleshade

Time continued on. John Wilkes Booth was found in a barn in Virginia where he was shot to death. Confederate President Jefferson Davis was soon tracked down in Georgia and arrested. Mapleshade was involved in the conspiracy of the death of Abraham upon which she was arrested. However this was going to be her last day.

* * *

**May 4****th****, 1865, Supreme Court house, Washington D.C.**

Mapleshade was being tried for murder. And after a few days, the cats were wrapping it up as they wanted to figure out on what the others had to say. Appledusk managed to return but he was horribly injured with his wars in Mexico. He limped over as his new lover provided support for him. He soon got up to the podium as his new lover Reedshine spoke out.

"I don't know who this Mapleshade is but she is a whore for stealing my lover." Reedshine hissed as she decided to throw salt into the she-cat's face. Appledusk spoke next.

"You're southern fellas and mother was no good to us. I hope the south gets forgotten in the war." Appledusk spoke. Soon Petal came forth as she began to speak.

"The only way for us to win was to make sure the south rises again." Petal began. Soon two cats decided to come up and take her away seeing how she was giving in the urge to start another rebellion. Petal was dragged off as she was taken away from the room. Lark spoke next.

"If the war didn't end sooner and we would still be fighting, I would have ended up dead or wounded fighting for a lost cause. The president had it coming for him and I hope he get locked up for the rest of his life." Lark spoke out as he soon left. Patch was nervous as Generals Grant and Sherman looked at him. They were convinced that he could go up there and speak. Patch soon walked up there as he began to speak.

"Friends, Foes and Thunderclan cats alike, I grew up in the south but what I knew from the concepts of Slavery and the plantations were wrong. Petal might have enjoyed it but I thought something needed to be done. If I found the keys of Liberty with my best friend General Sherman, we could have freed all the slaves and sadly that didn't happen on day one. It took a while for us to get to where we are and it will take a lot longer before everyone is equal. If I wanted to look up to Abraham as he looks down upon us from Starclan, I would have followed through and wanted the rights for Black Cats that were the former slaves. The rights of education, living conditions upon which they could thrive in, Citizenship and the right to vote. While we have many free black cats beforehand, Slavery will leave its ugly scar behind on Thunderclan's history. All I can say is that we follow the words of General Grant and even if we get repelled and face major setbacks, we keep moving forward in life. Even if we seem down and out, we keep dragging our feet along the trails of the history. We may come in valleys and climb over mountains, but at the end, we all stick together to get through these events. And even as one book ends full, there will be many more empty ones waiting to be filled with interesting events and adventures and may Starclan bless Thunderclan on making it this far. Thank you." Patch made his speech as he got down and left. Afterward the cat ruling the court turned to Mapleshade as he knew that there was only one thing left.

"Okay Missy, you have any last words on your statement?" He asked. Patch soon sat down next to the two generals as they were impressed on the tom's ability to speak. Mapleshade soon spoke.

"In the tornadoes of the war, the winds blowing on the fields, we're all seeds from dandelions snatched up in the grinding war. I wanted to do my state of Georgia proud and end the conflict within a swift few months. The conflict dragged on for years and I had just lost it when I was involved with Pickett as we charged across the fields to only get cut down like buffalo getting shot by hunters only for their hides. I knew I wanted to make my impact of glory beforehand, before I die so I broker a deal to kill the president, I accepted it and within a few days I was successful but I was ultimately caught like a slippery hog trying to run from the slaughter and the blade has come down. I will go out with a bang on our clan's history but it wouldn't be the one I was looking for." Mapleshade gave her closing statement as the Judge nodded. He did feel some pity for the she-cat but seeing how she shot Abraham, he knew he had to be straight with her.

"Mapleshade, for your crimes you committed for the assassination of President Abraham, I condemn you guilty of all charges. Now let's finish up and take her to the gallows." He mewed. Soon some cats came as they took Mapleshade away. Petal was long gone as so was Lark. Patch and the Generals were the only ones left as they followed the crowd out. Reedshine had put Appledusk to the wagon as they were going to have her hung.

They soon brought her out to a large wooden box with a noose hanging around it. Mapleshade was soon brought up to the noose as they were soon getting ready. Mapleshade was kicking and squirming her way free but seeing how they weren't going to simply let her go. They soon took the noose as they tied it firmly around her neck. Mapleshade knew she had to spit out a few last insults before she would go out.

"Reedshine, if you do have kits you blob like she-cat that stole the heart of my lover, I hope I would show up to kill them. Patch how dare you watch your dear precious mother meet her faith with the noose. I don't want to meet a fate like this but Reedshine should be the one taking my place!" Mapleshade continued her protests but Patch wasn't flinching by this as he knew he was mature enough to look after himself.

"Well good because I would like to see you get punished for your sins." Patch insulted Mapleshade as the crowd cheered. Mapleshade continued to squirm.

"You're old mother has nowhere to go, nowhere to be. I think Appledusk's descendants should be cursed when I start roaming as a spirit. My family shall not go unavenged." With that the floor between her came down as Mapleshade was hanging by her neck. The noose was tied tightly around her neck and as a result, it was cutting all the blood from her brain therefore she was growing weak from exhaustion. Mapleshade's breathing became shallower and shallower as she wheezed and her eyes turned white. After a few minutes of the whole ordeal, Mapleshade's body was limp and lifeless as the cats around her cheered. A monster like her was now dead and they could now move on with their lives.

"And Mapleshade is dead!" The judge cheered as the others erupted with applause. Appledusk turned to his eldest kit as he was having trouble of his own.

"What is my eldest son going to do when I am gone?" Appledusk croaked. It was clear he wasn't doing too well.

"Well with the war now over. I was hoping I can pursue some more educational activities seeing how the war pulled me out. I missed so much on learning and would like to keep learning." Patch responded. Reedshine looked at Patch as she spoke.

"Looks like the whore brought up some kits but I'll give credit that this one is a bright one." Reedshine spoke. General Sherman soon appeared as he wanted to greet the two cats.

"And he's passionate about the Union. He betrayed the confederates to fight with us." William responded as he told them about the kits adventures. The two of them laughed as they were overjoyed about it.

"So where do you plan on going?" Appledusk's voice croaked. Patch turned to him as he spoke.

"Out west, who knows? But before I do anything, I want to go to Springfield, Illinois to pay my condolences to poor Abraham." Patch responded as he wanted to pay his respects to the president first. Patch's lover the friend he knew back in Atlanta walked up to him as she had the horse ready.

"Well if you're off on an adventure to seek out more knowledge with your lover and family, just remember your old father will be thinking about you. I hope you do well in the future ahead as he will always remember the wonderful kit that he raised. And as a little something to help you along with the business I have back in Riverclan." Appledusk had a lot to think about his kit. He soon tossed him a sack of money for him as he wanted him to use it well. Reedshine soon passed a notebook with her address and name as she didn't want him to lose it.

"Contact me sometime and we can get together. Take care Patch." Reedshine spoke as she boarded the carriage as they both galloped away. Patch looked at his earning as his love looked at him.

"I know that these last few years were chaotic but we have a bright future ahead as we got Thunderclan to explore. I can't wait to begin the journey." The she-cat mewed. Patch smiled as he and she mounted the horse. He soon turned to Grant and Sherman who were both waving goodbye.

"So ready to head for Springfield to pay our respects for the president?" Patch asked as he was wondering if they were ready to do such a thing. She nodded as they rode out to get a train to the west.

Mapleshade was soon taken to Atlanta where she was buried next to her mother seeing how the two of them were alike. On her tombstone it said. Monsters aren't born but made. A fitting quote that would describe her. Some cats passed by as they didn't want to pay any attention to her. Not even her own family as they didn't want to associate themselves with her.

Jefferson Davis was in prison for two years, the north didn't want to put him on trial fearing that secession had in fact been legal. To ensure reconciliation, other confederate Generals and Politicians were now allowed to return to life in the now restored union. Scattered fighting continued into May when the last confederate forces in Texas disintegrated. The Southern States came under northern occupation to prevent any future rebellion and a very difficult era of reconstruction began. Over 3 million Thunderclan cats fought. Brother against Brother. This war would be the deadliest in their history. But the union had been preserved in fact some would say the real winners were to never again become slaves. Further amendments gave Black cats the rights to citizenship and the right to vote, as time went on, it was clear the fight for equality would continue and is still going on to this day.

* * *

Petal: Upset by the loss of her mother and the south during the war, she fell into a depressed loveless life as she didn't know what to do. She would die from Tuberculosis in 1872 at the age of 22.

Lark: After the war, he saw his fortunes out west as he decided to seek his fortunes there. He was one of the many that would travel out west to the silver and gold veins where he worked as a miner. He was killed by accident in a mining shaft in 1893 at the age of 44.

Patch: After receiving a piece of Appledusk's inheritance, Patch decided to move west after giving his respect to Abraham. He, Grant, Sherman and Reedshine became close friends as he was often the trading partners with her. Starting up his own business that ran for a few years before being bought out by a wealthy business owner upon which he continued to earn money. He also ran for governor of California in 1890 but ended up losing. He and his friend ended up having a total of 6 kits. The youngest daughter and by far the most successful of the bunch was Crystal. He continued to fight for worker's rights until his retirement in 1919 where he dedicated the rest of his life to writing. Patch would pass away peacefully in his sleep in January of 1948, at the age of 99 just 3 months shy of his 100th birthday.

Appledusk: After his marriage with Mapleshade was nullified, he returned to Riverclan to resume his duties of being a Riverclan soldier for his clan. He got himself into a war with Mexico as he was eager to return to fighting. He met Reedshine on the field as he didn't like her at first until he was injured by cannon fire upon which he dedicated his life to her. They ended up having 3 kits together as he was more than happy for the life he had. He soon became ill with an unknown sickness upon which he would end up passing away in 1868, three years after the war's end.

**[A/N]: The person I based Abraham off of stands as a symbol of Honesty, Empathy, Humanity, Perseverance, and Courage. A continuous reminder that has reminded us of what has forged us as people to this point and what we should continue striving to be. A president we should all look up to, even if something if we aren't sure of or don't have the answer for. We always had Abraham to help us with our darkest of fears and insecurities. We always have Abraham to rely on. May the president rest his soul.**

**Also this is the final chapter to this story as I plan on doing a couple of smaller projects afterward seeing how I still have a lot of time to kill off before that day which is now 18 days away. So I thought might as well do something smaller. Anyways I hope you enjoyed this and would want to see more of these in the future. This is now the longest story I've ever done and I'm more than proud despite the lack of views that it gathered. That is all from your author for now. Goodbye.**


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